WASHINGTON – Congressman Tim Griffin (AR-02) issued the following statement after House passage of the Health Care Cost Reduction Act (H.R. 436):
“President Obama’s health care law contains at least 20 tax increases on job creators and working families, including a provision that jeopardizes manufacturing jobs and raises the cost of life-saving medical devices. Another provision in the law limits families’ access to over-the-counter medicines. Our bill, the Health Care Cost Reduction Act repeals these harmful policies, and I am proud to support it despite the President’s veto threat. Unlike President Obama, I support improving hardworking Arkansans’ access to quality health care by lowering costs through patient-centered solutions that empower consumers.”
H.R. 436 would repeal President Obama’s health care law’s 2.3 percent tax on medical devices, which is scheduled to take effect in 2013, and would repeal the ban on using health savings accounts (HSA) and flexible spending arrangements (FSA) to pay for over-the-counter medicines. It also would remove certain FSAs’ “use-it-or-lose-it” rules that force employees to forfeit their balances at the end of the year. Finally, over the next decade, H.R. 436 would recapture $43.9 billion of overpayments resulting from federally-subsidized health insurance plans.
According to a new NYT/CBS News poll, more than two-thirds of Americans hope the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the President’s health care law. On Wednesday, the Obama Administration issued a veto threat on H.R. 436.
