While Congress has spent time debating repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), many policymakers in the states are focused on moving forward and evaluating how best to take advantage of the ACA to lower health care costs.
In Illinois, Governor Quinn’s Health Care Reform Implementation Council released initial recommendations on January 31st, a first step in indentifying policies Illinois can take to ensure the ACA delivers on the promise of increased access to high quality, cost-effective health care for all Illinoisans.
It’s a good thing that Illinois is looking forward rather than rehashing the partisan fights we saw in Washington D.C. last year. There are real-world consequences that repeal or roll-back of the ACA’s key initiatives would have on consumers and small businesses.
Illinois PIRG explored these issues in a recent report that draws on official research and statistics, and projections from independent sources.
Based on this analysis, repeal would strip tax credits from 159,900 Illinois small businesses. And over the longer term, the cost of offering employer-based health insurance could jump by more than $3000 a year over current law.
In today’s economy, the higher costs that would result from repeal are the last thing that Illinois consumers and businesses need.
As the Illinois Health Care Reform Implementation Council moves forward, it will be a forum for policymakers to work together to solve our health care problems and not get our state wrapped up in refighting last year’s Washington debate over health care.
Brian Imus
Illinois PIRG
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