The House GOP Doctors Caucus today cited the Obama administration’s decision to postpone the requirement for businesses to cover their workers under Obamacare as further need for full repeal of the law.

Rep. Phil Gingrey, M.D. (GA-11): The Obama administration's announcement it will postpone implementation of the employer mandate due to the enormous regulatory burden on businesses is proof positive that the law is a job-killer. This demonstrates, yet again, the need for full repeal of this disastrous law, not simply a delay. The federal takeover of one-sixth the economy raises taxes on small business owners and middle class families, guts Medicare, and will irreparably harm the doctor-patient relationship. Instead, we need state-based reforms that will lower costs, give patients more control of their insurance policies, increase access, and ensure a high standard of care.

Rep. Phil Roe, M.D. (TN-01): The delay of the employer mandate – while maintaining the requirement for individuals to purchase insurance – shows once again President Obama’s disregard for Congress and the rule of law. The only solution to the Obamacare train wreck is full repeal and a renewed effort to pass real health care reform that lowers the cost of care and increases access to more Americans.

Rep. Bill Cassidy, M.D. (LA-06): Obamacare's expense is killing jobs and is too great for businesses to handle. This delay in implementing the employer mandate acknowledges this while encouraging employers to drop insurance coverage for their employees; taxpayers will pay more and deficits will increase. We must replace Obamacare with patient-centered reforms which expand healthcare access without destroying jobs.

Rep. Andy Harris, M.D. (MD-01): Yesterday’s announcement is a clear acknowledgement of what the American people have known for a while -- Obamacare is bad for businesses, bad for families, and bad for this country. Instead of just a one year delay for businesses, the American people deserve a permanent delay from Obamacare’s bad medicine. In the end, this disastrous law needs to be repealed and replaced with patient-centered reforms that actually improve the quality and access to healthcare.

Rep. Charles Boustany, M.D. (LA-03): This latest action by the Administration shows exactly why I have opposed this law and fought to prevent this mandate from going into effect. I have introduced legislation, H.R. 903, the American Job Protection Act, to repeal the employer mandate. I am pleased the President now understands implementation of the employer mandate will hurt our economy. Delaying Obamacare’s employer mandate is not a long-term solution. It prolongs the problem and slows down economic recovery. Employers have been limiting new full-time hires and will continue to do so as long as this policy remains on the books.

Rep. Tim Murphy, Ph.D. (PA-18): Over the course of the past six months, our Oversight Subcommittee work has revealed countless flaws and fumbles. The bottom line is that this budget-busting law is not ready for primetime and I’m relieved to learn that the Administration is no longer pretending that all is well.

Rep. Tom Price, M.D. (GA-06): The decision by the Obama Administration to delay the implementation of the employer mandate is, in fact, an admission that this law is simply too overreaching, too intrusive, too unworkable and too destructive to the American people. If they can't manage to enforce their own law after three years of preparation, what does this say about their ability to actually deliver health care?

Rep. John Fleming, M.D. (LA-04): Pundits suggest that this delay in Obamacare implementation past the 2014 election season is for political purposes, and they may well be correct. The truth is Obamacare is collapsing under the weight of its own tangled and costly bureaucracy. This dangerous experiment with one of the world’s best health care systems should never have been foisted on the American people. But President Obama saw it as the vehicle to push us toward government-controlled health care. The Obama Administration will try to spin this delay as an excuse for more regulations and government control, but the American people know it’s actually further proof that Obamacare needs to be scrapped and we need to restart health care reform with common sense, free market solutions. Implementation of this incredibly complex law is simply so difficult and impractical that even Democrats may plead for Congress to go back to the drawing board on health care reform.

Rep. Diane Black, R.N. (TN-06): The Obama administration’s announcement acknowledges what we already know: Obamacare is unworkable. Delaying a central tenet of Obamacare underscores the need to fully repeal this ill-conceived law and replace it with patient-centered, market-based health care reform.

Rep. Michael Burgess, M.D. (TX-26): In committee hearings, Secretary Sebelius has been repeatedly unwilling to admit that the administration is discussing contingency plans on how to handle the continuing failure of this law.  Yesterday’s decision shows that they clearly are discussing these plans.  This is a contingency that they thought they should deal with, lest it become a bad political liability going into next year, which is an election year.  They seem to be quickly realizing what many of us have been saying for a long time, that the Affordable Care Act as a whole is only going to get more unpopular as implementation starts.

Rep. Larry Buschon, M.D. (IN-08): President Obama is finally admitting that the Affordable Care Act is crushing small businesses and middle class jobs. It is unfortunate that he did not realize this before many 8th district businesses, local governments and school corporations cut the hours of employees because of this mandate. A one year delay is merely a band-aid when what is needed is a long term fix which starts with full repeal of Obamacare.

Rep. Brad Wenstrup, D.P.M. (OH-02): President Obama is defying his own law by postponing the implementation of the employer mandate.  It’s clear evidence of Obamacare’s looming failure.  His decision, while good news for the moment, is merely a “stay of execution” for our economy and prolongs the uncertainty faced by employers.  It’s not a coincidence that the President wants to delay these terrible policies until after the 2014 elections to avoid the judgment of the American people. We need to completely repeal Obamacare now, and replace it with patient-centered reforms that actually improve healthcare in America. 

Rep. Paul Gosar, D.D.S. (AZ-04): Three years after Obamacare became law, its implementation looks a lot like a jenga tower: coming apart piece by piece and increasingly unsustainable. As Obamacare collapses under its own weight, we need to replace it with patient-centered and market-based reforms.

Rep. Renee Ellmers, R.N. (NC-02): Last night, the Obama administration conceded failure with a last minute decision to delay Obamacare. They postponed the requirement that companies with 50 or more workers either provide health insurance or pay fines of at least $2,000 per worker - which has already caused countless Americans to lose their jobs. Yet the average American will still suffer fines for failing to obtain individual insurance. By making this decision, President Obama and his administration have admitted failure for the law they forced upon the American people. Until now, the Obama administration has turned a deaf ear to countless witnesses, doctors, patients, and employers who have detailed the law's negative impact on their families and their well-being. But with this delay, the administration has confessed that the danger is real. The jig is up. I will not rest until the entire law is dismantled and truly affordable, patient-centered, and flexible health care solutions are put into place. Only by placing doctors, patients, and their families first will we be able to retain a health care system that has been the envy of the world.

About the GOP Doctors Caucus:
Utilizing medical expertise to develop patient-centered health care reforms focused on quality, access, affordability, portability, and choice.