Coalition opposes short-sighted band aid solutions that will waste billions in taxpayer funds
(American for Tax Reform) – Several free market individuals and organizations have signed a coalition letter urging Congress to maintain appropriations language restricting the use of Obamacare’s Risk Corridor program. Signers of the letter include leadership from Heritage Action, Club for Growth, American Commitment, Independent Women’s Voice, Americans for Prosperity, Tea Party Patriots, and Freedom Works.
Recently, the Obama administration announced that the Risk Corridor program had enough money to pay insurers just 12.6% of what they requested. Even though the program did not make enough money, the administration has said it would pay the entire amount requested and bailout insurance companies on the backs of hardworking taxpayers.
If Congress is complicit in this bailout, they will leave taxpayers on the hook for over $2.5 billion and the Obama administration will continue its attempt to conceal the negative impacts the law has had on American families.
As the letter points out, Obamacare uses tools like the Risk Corridor program to hide and shift the true costs of the law and to mislead the American public about its negative impacts:
“Among other things, Obamacare is about hiding costs and shifting costs, not about lowering them. The Risk Corridor program represents a microcosm of the law, and one of its most insidious provisions, as it attempts to hide the true costs of Obamacare from insurance companies and beneficiaries, and instead spread it out among hardworking taxpayers. Eliminating the Risk Corridor program’s ability to do this represents a major blow to the law and a step towards increased transparency in Obamacare’s exchanges.”
Failure to stop a taxpayer funded bailout of Obamacare insurance providers will ensure that the law’s failures will continue to be concealed through short-sighted band aid solutions and will waste billions in taxpayer funds.
The list of signatories can be found below:
- Michael A. Needham, CEO, Heritage Action for America
- Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform
- Phil Kerpen, President, American Commitment
- Heather Higgins, President and CEO, Independent Women’s Voice
- Sabrina Schaeffer, Executive Director, Independent Women’s Forum
- David McIntosh, President, Club for Growth
- Brent Gardner, Vice President of Government Affairs, Americans for Prosperity
- Adam Brandon, President and CEO, FreedomWorks
- Jenny Beth Martin, Co-Founder, Tea Party Patriots
- Ken Hoagland, Chairman, Defend America Foundation
- Thomas Schatz, President, Council for Citizens Against Government Waste
- Dean Clancy, Partner, Adams Auld LLC
- Eli Lehrer, President, R Street Institute
- Gregory T. Angelo, President, Log Cabin Republicans
- Eric Novack, Chairman, US Health Freedom Coalition
- Dan Perrin, President, The HSA Coalition
- Norm Singleton, President, Campaign for Liberty
- John R. Graham, Senior Fellow, National Center for Policy Analysis
- Greg Scandlen, Principal, Health Benefits Group
- Twila Brase, President, Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom
- Andrew Langer, President, Institute for Liberty
- Chris Conover, PhD, Adjunct Scholar, American Enterprise Institute
- Beverly Gossage, President, HSA Benefits Consulting
- Donna Hamilton, Virginians for Quality Healthcare
- Marc Short, President, Freedom Partners
- Gov. Gary Johnson, Honorary Chair, Our America Initiative
- Jeffrey A. Singer, MD, FACS
- Naomi Lopez-Bauman
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