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May 27 (2 days ago)
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Dear John,
Thank you for writing regarding your concerns with the American Health Care Act of 2017.
Today more people are paying the steep tax penalty or claiming hardship exemptions than are choosing to buy Obamacare policies. Obamacare premiums soared an average of 25 percent last year, and this year will be worse. In a third of the counties across America, there is only one provider to choose from, and soon we will see jurisdictions where there are no providers at all.
That is why I supported H.R. 1628, the American Health Care Act of 2017, which the House of Representatives passed on May 4, 2017. I hoped the necessary reforms could be enacted as a single comprehensive bill that would fully repeal the Affordable Care Act. While the AHCA establishes a patient-centered system and restores a healthy competitive market, it fails to restore the freedom of consumers to shop across state lines and does not fully repeal Obamacare.
I was particularly troubled with the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate of premium increases that older low-income adults would be expected to face under the initial draft of AHCA. To address this concern, I drafted an amendment that redirects tax credits to the most vulnerable and puts premiums within their reach. My amendment was supported on a bipartisan vote in the House Budget Committee and incorporated into the final text of the bill.
I wish AHCA did everything necessary to restore an optimal health insurance market, but I believe it moves us toward that goal. I am confident it will ultimately create a health care market that will produce better services, greater choices and lower costs for the vast majority of Americans.
The American Health Care Act will now be considered in the United States Senate and will likely return to the House with Senate amendments once the process in the Senate is complete.
Again, thank you for contacting me. Please visit my website at http://mcclintock.house.gov to reach me regarding any issue that concerns you or your family.
Tom
[My reply.]
Tom,
Thanks for your reply to my messages; however, your response is not to my concerns, or at the very most, the very least of them. I am not concerned about your fiddling with trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act. You and fellow Republicans have had over eight years to come up with something that the majority of voters want. And you have failed in numerous attempts, not the least of which is to assess or articulate clearly what the majority wants.
In this sense, my main lesson for you, one in return to your lectures to me and other citizens about what it means to be an elected representative, has been: Do your homework. And in my case, you have failed to do it--carefully. Thus, I have highlighted my input to you in those two messages. You will find the highlighted messages here.
and
I suggest you start representing and study what I actually wrote and am deeply concerned about. In short, take your most recent vote on our behalf and report back to us: What evidence do you have that your constituency supports what you have done with regard to American Health Care Act of 2017? How about some numbers, for example?
Sincerely,
