Washington, DC--  Congressman Jim Renacci (OH-16) voted today to repeal the job-crushing health care bill that has caused premiums to skyrocket for working families and threatens to add billions to the deficit.

H.R. 2, the Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act, passed the House today by a vote of 245 – 189. The bill repeals the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed by the Democrat-controlled 111th Congress. According to the Congressional Budget Office, today’s vote will prevent $770 billion in tax increases and will cut spending by $540 billion. It will substantially reduce the size of the federal government, and does not contain and new state-government, local-government or private-sector mandates.

The House Budget Committee estimated that implementing ObamaCare would result in $2.6 trillion in spending, and would increase the national deficit by $701 billion in the next ten years. In 2011 alone, 1.2 million seniors would have been forced out of their Medicare Advantage prescription drug plans as a result of last year’s health care bill. Nine out of 10 seniors would lose their employer-sponsored retiree Medicare drug coverage—and seven out of 10 Americans with employer-provided health coverage could lose their current plans— all because of ObamaCare.

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) found that an employer mandate like the one included in ObamaCare could eliminate 1.6 million jobs by 2014, 66 percent of which could come from small businesses. In December 2010, the NFIB compiled comments from members regarding the impact ObamaCare had on their business.  Employers across the country and across Ohio’s 16th district report that as a result of the current health care law, they have witnessed drastic increases in health insurance premiums—with some premiums increasing by more than 50 percent.  Consequently, small businesses are being forced to consider employee layoffs, cutting benefits, or both.  

In Ashland, Theil S Replacement Systems Inc. will no longer have the option to continue with their current health plan in 2012. A representative said the company is looking at the type of employees (full time vs. part time) that they use to mitigate the potential increase in their health insurance costs; otherwise they may be forced to drop their plan.  In Medina County, an employer has seen its health insurance premiums increase by over 60% as a result of ObamaCare, forcing the business to consider layoffs in order to afford the higher health care overhead costs.

The American people sent a loud and clear message to Washington that they want the Democrats’ job-crushing government takeover of health care repealed.  Congressman Renacci feels he was sent to Washington to get rid of the health care takeover that contains job-destroying tax hikes, job-destroying spending, and job-destroying mandates that are hurting our economy and making it harder for small businesses to create jobs and get people back to work. 

“ObamaCare is obstructing economic recovery and is destroying jobs by burdening individuals and small business owners with higher premiums, billions of dollars in new taxes and costly regulations.  Our seniors are also suffering as a result of last year’s ill-advised legislation, which gutted half a trillion dollars from Medicare. The first step towards recovery is repeal, and I am proud to cast my vote in favor of repealing this bill. The process to repeal and replace elements of the health care bill will not happen overnight, but with an open and transparent process in place, I’m confident that the reforms proposed in the 112th Congress will reflect the will of the American people,” Renacci said.

In conjunction with his support for repealing the current law, Congressman Renacci supports replacing the law with reforms that will reduce costs and make health care more affordable for all Americans.  Two specific cost-reduction reforms that Jim Renacci supports are increasing competition by permitting the sale of insurance across state lines, as well as implementing common sense tort reform to help end the costly practice of defensive medicine.

###