Late last year, California Congressman Kevin McCarthy, Majority Leader for the House of Representatives, sent a letter to all the Governors and Insurance Commissioners, asking how they would repeal Obamacare. The letter was aggressively negative and misleading about the Affordable Care Act, falsely saying that “Obamacare is crumbling under its own weight and seriously harming people in the process.” He did continue: “With a unified Republican Congress and Administration, we have the opportunity to repeal this law and undertake major health care reforms…” and asked for opinions.
California has responded. The letters came out Wednesday by Senator President Pro Tem Kevin De Leon and Senator Ed Hernandez., Thursday by Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, and Friday by Governor Jerry Brown.
While ranging from one page to 22 pages, all three letters provide strong defenses for the law, catalog the benefits that would be lost in repeal, detail the negative impacts of repealing without a replacement, and urge key guidelines for any alternative.
It’s good to have these strong responses from Rep. McCarthy’s home state. We’ll see if he listens.