WASHINGTON, DC -- A new government report finds that the new healthcare reform law will lead to higher health care costs, dramatic cuts to Medicare and employers dropping coverage.

According to Rick Foster, President Obama’s chief actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the new health care law – which was signed into law one month ago today – actually increases national health care costs over the next 10 years by $311 billion. CMS also determined that the new law will force more than seven million seniors off their current Medicare coverage while jeopardizing employer-sponsored health care coverage.

“This report provides concrete evidence to what Republicans and Democrats alike have been saying all along — the health care bill will raise, not lower, health care costs, while also threatening seniors’ access to care and employer-sponsored health care,” Lance said.

Congressman Lance in March criticized the House Democratic leadership for moving forward with a vote on the controversial health legislation before CMS finalized its projections. Foster informed lawmakers that his office needed time to assess the law, and was unable to complete its analysis by the time Congress voted on the bill.

“The American public deserved to know all the facts about the health care bill before Congress cast its votes. That’s why I supported a House Resolution to postpone consideration of the bill until the Medicare actuaries’ analysis had been public for at least 72 hours. Unfortunately, the Democratic Leadership hastily rushed the vote through the House of Representatives denying members of Congress and the public the opportunity to hear the true costs of the legislation.”

For his part, Congressman Lance was the first member of the New Jersey congressional delegation to call for a repeal of the health care law and replace it with sensible health care reform proposals. These include allowing insurance to be sold across state lines, establishing high-risk insurance pools, limiting frivolous lawsuits and prohibiting insurance companies from discriminating on the basis of pre-existing conditions.

“Now more than ever we need to work to repeal this misguided and unaffordable measure and replace it with common-sense health care solutions that lower the cost of health insurance -- not expand the size of government. Real reforms that lower health care costs without higher taxes, cuts to Medicare and employer-sponsored coverage or growing government: The kind of fiscally responsible health care reform the American people deserve,” Lance concluded.

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