Letter of Support: Blocking Health Care Exchanges in Pennsylvania, HB 2655
Dear Representative Perry:
On behalf of more than 115,000 activists with Americans for Prosperity-Pennsylvania, I am writing in strong support of your bill to block the creation of a state-based health insurance exchange (HB 2655) in Pennsylvania. Based in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), a health insurance exchange would subject the Pennsylvania insurance market to thousands of pages of needless rules and regulations.
Touted as a “flexible” tool meeting the needs of Pennsylvania citizens, a health insurance exchange would transfer all meaningful control to Washington, D.C. health care bureaucrats. All decisions, large and small, would have to be approved by the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Similarly, any “significant change” in the future would require further regulatory approval. Any attempt to innovate would be blocked, preventing any future attempts at real, patient-centered reform in Pennsylvania.
By creating an exchange, Pennsylvania would create a new long-term fiscal commitment with unknown costs. The best annual cost estimates exceed $50 million. The Exchange must be “self-funded” by 2015, but the only real source of revenue would be new taxes or fees on insurance plans.
Most importantly, if Pennsylvania decides to create a state-based health insurance exchange, a state-based exchange would subject local employers to a new tax costing up to $3,000 per employee. Due to a glitch in the text of PPACA, refusing to implement this bloated bureaucracy protects Pennsylvania employers.
Americans for Prosperity is proud to support your bill, HB 2655. I urge your colleagues to support its passage, and I look forward to working with you in the future.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Stefano
State Director
Americans for Prosperity-Pennsylvania
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