Who in America is affected by health care policies?

Everyone.

Why do we care? Because we want to use our amazing health care technologies to save lives.

But, increasingly, we can’t afford our health care. It is now 17 percent of our national economy and growing far faster than inflation. U.S. health care costs are, by far, the highest in the world, and yet 50 million Americans do not even have insurance. There are 129 million Americans who have pre-existing conditions that can deny insurance coverage or make the premiums unaffordable.

So in 2009 the congress passed health care reform, a target of every president in the last 60 years.

But did the new laws address the problems with our dysfunctional health care system? No, at least not according to the new Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, who set out to fix the problems by repealing the new laws.

The GOP claims the new laws are “job killers” although in our new civil society they may now call them “job shrinkers” I suppose.

Republicans claim employers will reduce jobs massively to avoid the new costs related to providing health care coverage to their employees. But the facts do not seem to support those claims.

The politically neutral FactCheck.org examined the claims of the Republicans, made without research, and compared those claims to research about the influence of the new legislation on jobs.

Three groups, the Lewin Group, the RAND Corp. and the politically neutral CBO all did actuarial studies on this issue and each determined that there would be “minimal” jobs effects.

Less than one half of one percent of low wage jobs could be lost, but higher paying jobs in health care will grow significantly over the next decade.

The second GOP claim, that the new laws would “break the budget” seems equally inaccurate. New House Speaker John Boehner said costs will “skyrocket.”

He supported his claim with data from a Kaiser Foundation report that covered increases before the laws were passed. The GOP claims the laws will increase the deficit by $701 billion over the next decade. FactCheck finds that claim to be “mostly bogus.” The CBO reports the laws will generate a savings of $230 billion over a decade.

OK, so the Republicans were wrong that the new laws would cost American jobs, and wrong the laws would add to the deficit. But they were “doing the will of the people” as the Speaker reminded us Wednesday, right?

Not so much. Several polls this month indicate otherwise. A new Washington Post/ABC poll reports only 33 percent of the public wants repeal. An Associated Press poll states that 43 percent want government to do more to fix health care.

This weeks’ NBC/WSJ poll finds 46 percent oppose repeal and 45 percent support repeal. In the same poll 39 percent find the new laws to be good, the highest percentage since September 2009.

So Republicans were wrong again. But maybe they are doing what their voters want. Nope, according to a new AP/GFK poll only 49 percent of Republicans want the laws totally repealed.

But I am with the Republicans, repeal as you will and cut costs, as long as your plan offers coverage to at least the 30 million uninsured the current laws cover; as long as you plan reduces seniors cost in the prescription “donut hole;” as long as your plan cuts small business taxes 35 percent for insuring workers; as long as your plan protects insurance for pre-existing conditions and denies cancellation of insurance for those who get sick.

Oh, I forgot. There is no Republican plan. Right.

Jim Crawford is a contributing columnist for The Tribune and a former educator at Ohio University Southern.