For Immediate Release
June 28, 2012
Contact: Trav Robertson
405-427-3366

SCOTUS Upholds Affordable Care Act

Oklahoma GOP Leadership Loses Big Bet on Gamble with the Lives of Oklahoma Citizens

Oklahoma City – The supreme court upheld the decision on providing better healthcare to millions of Americans. However, due to the inactivity of our State’s Republican Leadership, Oklahomans will have to play catch up. The GOP leaders turned down $54 million in federal funding to set up a health insurance exchange.

Now, Governor Fallin has remarked that this act will cost Oklahomans $500 million which is simply incorrect. We have been led to believe that the healthcare law will “add hundreds of billions of dollars to our deficit” and that “we still don’t know how much this law will eventually cost.” Wrong, and wrong again. Time after time the Congressional Budget Office has said the health care law will reduce the deficit – by more than $100 billion in the first 10 years, and more than $1 Trillion in the second decade. Passing health reform was the fiscally responsible thing to do, and suggesting otherwise is just dishonest. In addition, the affordable care act lowers health care costs for millions of Americans through health insurance exchanges, caps on out-of-pocket payments, tax credits, and expanded access to Medicaid. In fact, most of these benefits were put in place almost 2 years ago and have been helping Oklahomans afford healthcare ever since.

Oklahoma Democratic Party Chairman Wallace Collins said, “It is immoral for the Republican leadership to gamble with the lives of our citizens and now they should start helping restore Oklahoma.”

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