On the heels of votes to delay the implementation of key parts of the federal health care law, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-7th, on Friday fielded questions on the subject from a friendly audience in a Richmond suburb.
“This health care law provides one of the biggest threats to economic growth out there today,” he said, adding that the Affordable Care Act “doesn’t even come close to delivering on that name.”
He said both sides of the aisle want to increase the quality and access to health care. The way to begin to do that is to lower the cost so that more businesses and working people can afford it.
Cantor told reporters after the event, organized in part by the National Federation of Independent Business at Cranemasters in Chesterfield County, that the day’s program was “very timely” given the White House’s recent decision to delay part of the law.
The U.S. Treasury Department’s announcement on July 2 that the Obama administration would push back for a year the employer and insurer reporting requirement reignited the debate over the law.
Cantor backed an effort in the U.S. House of Representatives this month to support the one-year delay in the employer mandate as well as push the individual mandate back a year.
The House had previously passed full bills to repeal Obama’s signature legislation that went nowhere. While Cantor has said he would like to see the law overturned, he backed the delays.
Americans for Prosperity also this month aired a TV ad in Virginia featuring a woman who asked: “Can I really trust the folks in Washington with my health care?” The group is planning another rally against Medicaid in August.
Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, D-3rd, supports the health care law and has pushed for Virginia to participate in the optional expansion of Medicaid.
He said businesses with fewer than 50 employees are exempt from provisions of the health care law and that 94 percent of employers with more than 50 workers already offer health insurance.
“Small businesses at worst are just exempt and don’t do anything. If they provide the insurance they get a tax credit,” he said. “If they don’t … their employees still have access to health care coverage.”
Virginia has chosen to have the federal government run the health exchange for its residents, a key piece of the Affordable Care Act to help people and small businesses buy health insurance at affordable rates. Registration is slated to begin Oct. 1.
Scott also urges Medicaid expansion in Virginia, saying it could create 30,000 jobs – for taxpayers, he notes – as a result of billions of dollars in federal spending that would otherwise benefit other states.