Summary: FreedomWorks has signed onto the following coalition letter in support of the Helping Sick Americans Now Act: Dear Leader Cantor and Congressman Pitts, We want to thank you for drafting, and offering to call up in the House, a bill that allows Members to choose between continuing to have part of the so-called Affordable Care Act fund lobbyists, activist organizations, and ad campaigns to raise taxes and restrict freedom, as it is presently doing, or redirecting some of those funds to make insurance more affordable for Americans with pre-existing conditions, while reducing overall spending. That’s the decision the House will face when it considers your H.R. 1549, the Helping Sick Americans Now Act. It should be an easy choice. We fully support repealing – and short of that fully defunding – ObamaCare, and in a perfect world that is what we’d have already done and would do again tomorrow. Collectively, we represent millions of Americans who recognize the harm ObamaCare will do to medical choice, access, and affordability, and know there are far better ways to improve health care. As long as we face the reality of this President and a Senate controlled by Democrats, we recognize that repeal will take time. We work every day to build awareness of the false promises and real harms of this dreadful law, and support for defunding, de-authorizing and ultimately repealing it. As we work toward repeal, we want to ensure that we protect innocent Americans from the worst aspects of the law, and mitigate the law’s damage to our country. That’s why we support the Helping Sick Americans Now Act. It would redirect money that’s currently being used to implement some of the worst aspects of the existing law to the Pre- Existing Condition Insurance Plan, or PCIP, a federal high-risk pool insurance program that helps provide coverage for those with pre-existing conditions, but which the Administration closed to new enrollees earlier this year due to funding constraints. The bill takes $4 billion from an Obamacare slush fund and reallocates part of it to helping sick people the President has turned his back on. The remainder, about $1 billion, goes to deficit reduction. To be clear: this bill defunds Obamacare. The American people need to hear about the failure and hypocrisy of this Administration, and the Helping Sick Americans Now Act will help to get this message out. First, the Administration sold ObamaCare as a vehicle for helping those with pre-existing conditions, but knowingly poorly designed and underfunded the primary program serving that most vulnerable group. Once the consequences of that under-funding became clear, instead of reallocating existing slush funds to support it, they shut the door to the program on an estimated 40,000 sick Americans, causing real hardship for many Americans who currently have no better alternatives. This didn’t have to happen. Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has the authority under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) to transfer money from the so-called Prevention and Public Health Fund (“Prevention Fund,” or “Slush Fund”) to the PCIP. But she has knowingly refused to take this simple, compassionate step, because politics takes preference over the people this Administration no longer needs to pretend to care about. H.R. 1549 would therefore require HHS to transfer approximately $4 billion in FY 2013-2016 funding from the Prevention and Public Health Fund to PCIP. This would allow CMS to enroll sick Americans who have been denied coverage because of the Administration’s decision. In addition to prioritizing sick Americans, H.R. 1549 would also eliminate four years of funding from the Prevention and Public Health Fund, one of ObamaCare’s worst programs, which is rife with waste and abuse. For example, the “Prevention” fund has financed pet neutering campaigns, bike/park signs, and gardening, and more disturbingly lobbying campaign – in some cases directly funding lobbyists in violations of fe
