Amodei votes to delay ObamaCare individual mandate
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Brian Baluta, 202-225-6155
WASHINGTON, D.C. –Congressman Mark Amodei (NV-2) today voted to extend basic fairness to all Americans by delaying implementation of the Affordable Care Act individual mandate, which will require Americans to buy health insurance or face fines. The Obama Administration recently decided to delay the employer mandate by one year, which will require larger businesses to provide healthcare coverage or face fines.
“Offering relief to employers, while still threatening individuals with fines, is simply not fair,” said Amodei. “The looming employer mandate has already produced the unintended consequence of shifting a record number of Americans into part-time work. By all accounts, ObamaCare is not ready for prime time. I do not believe that it will ever be. However, delaying implementation is clearly common ground and should be enacted for businesses and individuals alike.”
Earlier this year, Senator Max Baucus of Montana, a senior Democrat who helped write the Affordable Care Act, said with respect to its implementation, “I just see a huge train wreck coming down.”
Last week, three Democratic union leaders stated in a letter to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that “the Affordable Care Act will shatter not only our hard-earned health benefits, but destroy the foundation of the 40-hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class… The unintended consequences of the ACA are severe. Perverse incentives are already creating nightmarish scenarios… We can no longer stand silent in the face of elements of the Affordable Care Act that will destroy the very health and wellbeing of our members, along with millions of other hard-working Americans.”
H.R. 2667, the Authority for Mandate Delay Act, and H.R. 2668, the Fairness for American Families Act, both of which passed the House today with bipartisan support, would accomplish two goals respectively: 1) Codify the President’s delay of the employer mandate for one year, because he does not have the authority to do so unilaterally. And 2) Extend the one-year delay to the individual mandate.
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