PRESS RELEASE: Health care repeal has already been debated and the research is a resounding “NO!”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
July 25, 2017 
 
CONTACT: 
James Myall 
Phone: (207) 620-1103 
Email: jmyall@mecep.org
 
Health care repeal has already been debated and the research is a resounding “NO!” 
MECEP urges Senators Susan Collins and Angus King to vote no on the Motion to Proceed 
 
AUGUSTA, ME (July 25, 2017) – Today, the Maine Center for Economy Policy (MECEP) urges Senators Susan Collins and Angus King to vote no on the “Motion to Proceed”. The Senate is scheduled to make the procedural vote today, which would allow it to debate an undisclosed Obamacare repeal bill. But there is little debate to be had: According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the repeal bill would double the average premiums and leave 22 million Americans, including tens of thousands of Mainers, without healthcare over the next decade. 
 
“Under the repeal plans proposed thus far, nearly 100,000 Mainers would lose their health insurance in the first year, and tens of thousands more would follow,” said James Myall, a MECEP policy analyst. “Efforts to repeal have already created enough uncertainty for Mainers and the health care market, which is bad for business and bad for Mainers already struggling to make ends meet.” 
 
MECEP has analyzed the state-level impacts of the many versions of Republicans’ efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act:
“We thank Senators Susan Collins and Angus King for holding the line,” Myall said. “Maine cannot afford the widespread destruction that would be wrought by any of these proposals. Mainers do not deserve legislation that causes them harm for the sake of tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. So we ask that Senators Collins and King continue to oppose any repeal bill that hurts Mainers.”
 
About MECEP
 
The Maine Center for Economic Policy is a nonpartisan policy research organization that provides citizens, policymakers, advocates, and media with credible and rigorous economic analysis that advances economic justice and prosperity for all Maine people.