Slaughter Statement on Republicans Canceling Vote on their Health Repeal Bill

WASHINGTON, DC -- Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (NY-25) released the following statement in reaction to Congressional Republican leaders pulling their bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act from the House floor ahead of the scheduled vote this afternoon. This move means this bill will no longer be voted on today. Slaughter brought the Affordable Care Act to the floor of the House of Representatives in 2009 as Chairwoman of the Rules Committee.

"It turns out that the president who wrote the book on deal making couldn't close this deal. This decision is a win for the American people, who would have been devastated by this bill. Twenty-four million people would have been pushed off their health insurance, families would have had to pay higher premiums and deductibles, and those aged 50 to 64 would have faced a crushing age tax, paying five times more for premiums. This legislation would have also killed the requirement for insurance companies to offer Essential Health Benefits, including emergency services, maternity care, and prescription drugs. All the while, it would steal from Medicare, shorten the life of the Medicare Trust Fund and ransack the funds that seniors depend on for care

House Republicans tried to jam this bill through the House without holding a single hearing, without waiting for a nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office analysis, and by bringing this bill to the floor just hours after releasing the final text late last night. A bad process begets a bad product - and both this process and this product could not have been worse. This bill deserves not only to be pulled from the floor today - it should be scrapped once and for all."

Read this original document at: https://louise.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/slaughter-statement-republicans-canceling-vote-their-health-repeal-bill