Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today said he is concerned about the financial impact of House Republicans' plan to repeal the new health insurance reform act.  Click here and here to learn more about how the law benefits New Mexicans.

In a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, the director of the Congressional Budget Office today said in a preliminary analysis that repealing the law would add $230 billion to the deficit over the next decade and nearly $1 trillion in the decade that follows.  The Congressional Budget Office is a non-partisan group of experts that serve as the "official scorekeepers" of Congressional initiatives.

"The goal of the reform law is to improve the quality of health care Americans receive, and to extend care to the millions Americans who don't currently have it.  But it was written in the most finically responsible way possible: not only is it entirely paid for, it actually reduces our nation's deficit by $230 billion over the next 10 years."

The preliminary CBO analysis described other negative effects of repealing the health reform law including leaving 32 million Americans without a source of coverage and increasing costs for Americans purchasing health insurance on the individual market as well as modestly increasing premiums in the large employer market, where most Americans receive coverage.

"Repealing this important new law would hurt New Mexico, which has the unfortunate distinction of being one of the most uninsured states in the country.  And now we know that repeal of this law is also fiscally irresponsible," Bingaman said.  "I will work hard to ensure that this law gets fully implemented so that New Mexicans can receive all the benefits it has to offer."