Dems Tout Consumer Protection In Health Care Reform As Repeal Vote Looms

Hours before debate on the health care repeal started on the House floor, the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee heard how the health care law has impacted some Americans.

The committee used the event to lament the fact that the Republican party has not held a hearing of its own before starting debate on the repeal.

“We will hear the voices of parents, children, students, seniors and small business owners,” Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said. “We will see the real faces of reform in the one and only hearing where these Americans can share their concerns before the vote to repeal their rights.”

The testimony, which consisted of seven Americans helped by the health care law, centered particularly around the new consumer protection benefits — the coverage of preexisting conditions, the inability of insurance companies to drop customers, and children’s ability to stay on their parents plan until age 26.

A Department of Health and Human Services study found that between 50 and 129 million non-elderly American have pre-existing medical conditions. 

Along with consumer protections, some Democrats cited recent Congressional Budget Office numbers, saying repeal will cost $230 billion over the next 10 years. Republicans contest that figure.

Assistant Democratic Leader James Clyburn (D-SC) evoked the civil rights movement, citing Martin Luther King Jr. when touting the health care law as one of the most important pieces of legislation in recent history. He said, like other pieces of major legislation, the health care bill isn’t perfect, but the remedy is not a sweeping repeal.

“As we go to the floor tonight and tomorrow to debate this issue, I hope we can look at bipartisan changes and modifications that will increase efficiency and effectiveness, but … not repeal,” Clyburn said.