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"KellyCare" Will Empower Insurance Giants and Leave 53 Million Uninsured Americans in the Dust
CONCORD - Tonight, House Republican Leader John Boehner, one of Kelly Ayotte's DC establishment friends, will be attending an NHGOP fundraiser in Concord. Both Ayotte and Boehner support a risky healthcare plan that would eliminate protections for New Hampshire families and empower big insurance companies.
"KellyCare" - Ayotte's plan to take control over healthcare away from Granite Staters and put it squarely in the hands of insurance giants - was manufactured by Boehner and the Republican establishment in Washington. By eliminating essential state-level protections that require insurance companies to remain accountable to the consumers they serve, "KellyCare" lets insurance bureaucracies decide what they will or will not cover. Without these crucial safeguards, insurance companies are free to cover only the most profitable services for themselves, leaving women, children and those with pre-existing medical conditions particularly at risk.
"Kelly is calling in her establishment friends to do the dirty work she keeps avoiding - defending and discussing her disastrous plan," said Emily Browne, Press Secretary for the New Hampshire Democratic Party. "New Hampshire has created rock-solid consumer protections to ensure that no insurance bureaucracy can choose not to cover something just to protect its own profit. To do away with these would not only threaten the ability of Granite Staters to keep their families healthy, but would allow insurance bureaucrats to deny New Hampshire its right to decide how to care for its residents. 'KellyCare' lets insurance companies call the shots - and leaves New Hampshire families in the dust."
Earlier this month, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that "KellyCare" would leave 53 million Americans without healthcare. When pushed about this massive shortfall, Boehner said: "What we do is try to make the current system work better...We do not attempt to cover 46 million more Americans" [Roll Call, 11/2/09, CNN, 11/1/09; CBO Analysis, 11/4/09].
The New York Times said that the Ayotte-Boehner plan would "do almost nothing to reduce the scandalously high number of Americans who have no insurance...and isn't health care reform." (New York Times 11/6/09)
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