Today, Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler sent a letter to U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan urging him to ensure Congress pursues replacement health care solutions simultaneously with efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Today, Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler sent a letter to U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan urging him to ensure Congress pursues replacement health care solutions simultaneously with efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
The text of Jaime’s letter to Speaker Paul Ryan follows, and a PDF of the original letter is available here:
Dear Speaker Ryan:
As Congress approaches the significant task of undoing the damage that has been done to Americans’ health care and the U.S. economy by repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), I urge you to undertake the implementation of replacement health care solutions with equal urgency and purpose.
I know we share the same vision when it comes to Americans’ health care: to make it more affordable, accessible and higher quality for all citizens. Your leadership with regard to the ACA to this point should be commended; you’ve recognized that rather than trying to patch the massive problems of a fundamentally flawed program, we must take aggressive action before the system falls in on itself. However, please keep in mind that repealing the ACA is only one step in the process -- not our final goal.
It’s vital that we move forward with replacing the ACA in a manner that doesn't cause additional disruption to those families who have already endured higher costs and the loss of their doctors and plans since the ACA was forced upon them. As such, any action to repeal on the U.S. House floor should be accompanied by a simultaneous and immediate strategy for replacing it. For instance, as we unravel the portions of the law that did not reduce health care costs, but instead sought to make prices artificially low through taxpayer-funded subsidies, we should simultaneously debate and vote on a replacement solution that would eliminate the restriction on a citizen of Washington state from purchasing a health care plan from another state that costs less and better suits her specific needs.
Since the inception of the law, the ACA has been consistently opposed by a majority of Americans. Despite the problems that have fueled its unpopularity, advocates for the law have stubbornly dismissed or denied the difficulties it has caused. Americans want our party to do better with their health care. If we simply eliminate the ACA without an equal commitment to immediately replacing it with more patient-centered solutions, we risk repeating the Democrats’ mistakes and losing the trust of Americans we’ve worked so hard to earn.
As someone who has worked to improve health care for all residents throughout my career in public service, I offer my time, energy and support to you in pursuit of an immediate replacement plan for the ACA.
Sincerely,
Jaime Herrera Beutler
Member of Congress
