We can’t afford to keep Randy Hultgren and Peter Roskam in office any longer. They continue to waste our taxpayer money in vain attempts, 42 at last count, to end the Affordable Care Act. Each Hultgren and Roskam attempt to defund the law, which was enacted by Congress and upheld by the Supreme Court, costs us taxpayers (according to research by CBS) approximately $1.45 million.

Hultgren and Roskam join with the rest of the House Republicans in collectively spending 15% of its activity since 2011 on repealing the ACA (Obamacare), or about $17 million in Congressional Republican salaries– according to a recent report published by the New York Times.

When considering all the facts, it becomes quite clear that the Republican temper-tantrum over the ACA is nothing more than them serving the financial services industry–their primary campaign donors–rather than any concern about American people.

In a carefully choreographed endeavor, Republican politicians, the Republican Party, and conservative front groups join together in a one, two, three punch in denying the truth of the ACA and spreading lies to the American people.

It works like this, first, the politicians try to scare their constituents by sending out scary letters, Facebook entries, Tweets (those that Tweet) and speeches before Congress. Two–the Republican Party spends millions in negative and misleading advertising against the ACA. Three, conservative front groups with financial ties to the financial services industry buy multimillion dollar advertisements further misleading and lying to the American public.

Hultgren on his Facebook page:

“Consumers beware of cons and phony Obamacare ‘navigators‘ who will steal your personal information.”

Newsflash: These people have had thorough background checks, have undergone an intense training program, and are certified.

Roskam on his Facebook page:

“Recently I toured Northwest Neurology and I got to learn firsthand about the challenges that the healthcare law will impose on independent doctors and their ability to serve their patients.”

Newsflash: check out real physicians and what they have to say about Obamacare at the National Physicians Alliance website at npalliance.org.

For their part in the defund Obamacare campaign, the Republican party has spent more than $400 million in the negative lie campaign against the Affordable Care Act (according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group at Kantar Media).

The three highest spenders, according to Kantar Media, in the lie campaign against the ACA through May 2013 are Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the National Republican Congressional Committee.

But the group called Americans for Prosperity (a group founded and largely funded by David Koch) recently put out a particularly shameful campaign ad featuring a Florida woman named Tricia who has a daughter with cancer. In the ad, Tricia states she is fearful of loosing her doctors due to Obamacare.

Newsflash–Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act) will NOT take away your doctors or threaten your choice of doctors. This is strictly fear mongering. It is especially shameful for them to use such a particularly painful and terrifying life situation to strike fear into the hearts of vulnerable people. To see a real physician debunking that multimillion dollar lie, go to the website of the National Physicians Alliance at npalliance.org.

For real information on what the Affordable Care Act will actually do, don’t believe the profit driven lie campaign, check out the National Physicians Alliance website, or such sites as: HealthCare.gov, ObamaCareFacts.com, Valley Nurses Association, hhs.gov/opa/affordable-care-act, whitehouse.gov/healthreform, and www2.illinois.gov/gov/healthcarereform/Pages/default.aspx. If you run across an ad or information you want to check, FactCheck.org, Politifact.org, and opensecrets.org are also good sources.

Some key advantages to the ACA we all need to know are:

Your children can stay on your insurance plan until they are 26.

Your insurance company can not drop you if you become sick.

There is no limit to your lifetime coverage (no more lifetime ‘cap’).

You can not be denied coverage if you have a preexisting condition.

If you are a female, you cannot be charged more for insurance.

Many preventative screenings, like mammograms, are free.

Your insurance company must spend 80% of your premium payments on medical care, rather than on advertising and executive salaries. In other words, they cannot make any more than 20% profit. If they do, they must return the money to you in the form of a refund.

Can you see how the ACA gets in the way of the insurance industry runaway profits? Can you see why politicians who are glued into the inside of those pockets will go to such lengths to distort the truth?

Bottom line, the Affordable Care Act is the beginning of the end of the insurance industry’s abuse of sick and vulnerable people. And the beginning of hospitals getting paid for the millions of people they are required to treat who in the past did not have insurance. The ACA regulates the Insurance Industry and the insurance industry does not like that.

It is no surprise here that both Hultgren’s and Roskam’s largest campaign donors come from the financial services industry (opensecrets.org). By now, it’s pretty clear both Randy Hultgren and Peter Roskum are working for their donors rather than for those of us they are charged with representing in their districts. They are selling this country piece by piece and person by person to the financial industries who pay for their seat in Congress.

Tags: Affordable Care Act, conservatives, healthcare, insurance industry, Obamacare, Peter Roskam, Randy Hultgren, Republicans

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