Rep. Garamendi Issues Statement on Repeal of Affordable Care Act

WASHINGTON, May 4 -- Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., former Insurance Commissioner of California, released the following statement about the passage in the House of Representatives of the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, which ends many of the law's essential consumer protections:

"This bill is atrocious. It is cruel. I simply cannot believe that something this bad could pass the House of Representatives, but it has.

"This bill will strip 24 million people of their health insurance. It is a crushing age tax for Americans of 50-64 years of age, and will force them to pay up to five times as much as what a 30-year-old would pay for the same coverage. It will destabilize funding for Medicare, taking $75 billion out of the trust fund, and blow a $10 billion annual hole in MediCal. It will practically eliminate the guarantee of coverage for pre-existing conditions, which could affect over 300,000 people in my district. But it will provide a massive, $600 billion tax cut to America's richest. It is an outright assault on the poor and the sick, and a huge transfer of wealth to the rich. Even worse, the Republican majority rushed to a vote on it without giving the Congressional Budget Office a chance to tell us just how bad it is.

"I served for eight years as the Insurance Commissioner of California. I know exactly what insurance companies will do under policies that gives them free rein, and that's what this bill does. The amendments that were put on this bill at the last second do nothing to reduce the devastation it will impose on America's most vulnerable. It is a sad day in Congress."

The bill passed by a vote of 217-213, with no Democrats voting for the bill.