WASHINGTON – Republicans aggressively cross-examined Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius about the rocky implementation of the Affordable Care Act Wednesday, saying the law isn’t working as promised.
At a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on the Health and Human Service Department’s $1 trillion proposed budget for 2015, Committee Chairman David Camp, R-Miss., questioned Sebelius’ previous statements that the health care law would create jobs and would not hurt employment.
The budget requests $1.8 billion to invest in the new health care marketplace, of which $1.2 billion would be covered by user fees, Sebelius said.
“The law is not working as it was promised,” Camp said. “And yet the president’s budget doubles down on this law, requesting another $1.8 billion for its implementation.”
Click to enlarge
Rep. Todd Young, R-Ind., asked if the administration had “rethought whether the Affordable Care Act may adversely impact wages, hours and jobs” in light of a recent report released by the Congressional Budget Office on the law and its effects on employment. The CBO report said, The ACA will reduce the total number of hours worked, on net, by about 1.5 percent to 2.0 percent during the period from 2017 to 2024, almost entirely because workers will choose to supply less labor.”
“I would say unfortunately the Congressional Budget Office report has been mischaracterized,” Sebelius responded. “It does not say that the passage of this health care law will lead to 2 million less jobs.”
Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, cited the numerous delays that have plagued the health care law’s implementation, saying it was “not workable for businesses” and asking if there would be further delays. Last month the White House extended the mid-size business employer insurance mandate for for a second time until 2016. Extensions have also been granted for online access to the online insurance exchange, which initially experienced numerous technological issues since its October rollout.
Despite the extensions, Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., said preparing for the mandate still poses a burden on businesses.
“Even though you’re pushing the mandates off, people are making those adjustments in the public sector and the private sector today,” he said.
However, Sebelius said employers only have to cover 70 percent of employees to meet the law’s requirements, adding that it only applies to full-time workers who work more than 30 hours per week. Additionally, Sebelius said the administration hasn’t “delayed the law’s implementation across the board” and that there will be no more extensions after the March 31 deadline to sign up for insurance.
When asked about defining the ACA’s success in light of shortfalls in insurance sign-up rates, Sebelius touted the 4.2 million people who had signed up for exchanges through February, which is just under 3 million less than the administration’s original target of 7 million. The administration cannot yet tell how many of those 4.2 million people have paid their premiums because they operate in the private market.
“Success looks like millions of people with affordable health coverage, which we will have by the end of March,” Sebelius said.
Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., aggressively asked Sebelius about how the department plans to cover the costs of its budget request, talking over her attempts to respond and asserting that both tax entitlement reform and other tax increases would represent a “tremendous burden” on middle-class and low-income Americans.
“We’re playing ring-around-the-rosy for this,” Kelly said. “There is no way we can look at the metrics of this and say it’s going to work.”
Sebelius countered that the government will be able to “cut in half the cost trajectory of Medicare year in and year out” because of Obamacare. The proposed budget seeks to cut $422 from the program over the next decade.
Multiple committee members called for more transparency by the Obama administration and asked how it could be improved, but Sebelius touted the importance of bringing Americans health care.
“More people have insurance coverage … than did before this law was passed,” Sebelius said. “This is actually making an impact, and a positive impact.”
