Washington, DC - Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI) today issued the following statement on next week’s Ways and Means hearing on Supreme Court’s ruling that the Affordable Care Act is constitutional:
“The bottom line that almost no one will pay the free-rider fee whether you call it a tax or a penalty. Just like in Massachusetts where Governor Romney put in place the same mandate to prevent free-riding off the health care system, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that only 1.4% of Americans will pay anything for refusing to purchase insurance.
“Democrats will use the hearing as an opportunity to review the benefits of the health care reform law, and highlight the hypocrisy of Mitt Romney’s ever evolving position on health care reform and the nearly identical free-rider mandate that he included in his Massachusetts law.
“The American people will see through this arcane hearing and see that the Republican agenda is to simply end the benefits of health care reform and put the insurance companies back in the driver’s seat -- returning to the days when individuals with pre-existing conditions were denied care, seniors fell into the prescription drug donut hole, and too many families could not afford insurance."
