“President’s Health Care Law Is The Wrong Prescription”
The U.S. Supreme Court recently concluded three days of hearings on the fate of President Obama’s health care law, which he signed two years ago.
There is no question that our health care system required, and still requires, substantial reform. However, I voted against this law because it increases health care costs, hurts our senior citizens and health care providers, and imposes billions of dollars in new taxes, fees, and penalties. This will lead to fewer choices and higher insurance costs for many middle-income Americans and most small businesses, the opposite of what real health care reform should do. The truth is, Congress failed to follow the Hippocratic oath, “first do no harm.”
I find it particularly disturbing that President Obama’s health care law does not do enough to rein in the cost of health care and provide consumers with more affordable choices. In fact, Medicare’s chief actuary estimates that the law will increase health spending across the economy by $311 billion. And, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says that the law will actually increase premiums for an average family plan by $2,100. Moreover, a recent report issued by the CBO found that the new law will cost $1.76 trillion between now and 2022. That is twice as much as the bill’s original ten-year price tag of $940 million.
The new law also means fewer choices for many middle-income Americans and small businesses. All individual and small group policies sold in the United States will soon have to fit into one of four categories. One size simply does not fit all. In Maine, almost 90 percent of those purchasing coverage in the individual market have a policy that is different from the standards in the new law.
I am also very concerned about the impact that the law will have on Maine’s small businesses, which are our state’s job creation engine. The new law discourages small businesses from hiring new employees and paying them more. It could also lead to onerous financial penalties, even for those small businesses that are struggling to provide health insurance for their employees. According to a recent Gallup Survey, 48 percent of small businesses are not hiring because of the potential cost of health insurance under the health care law. The Director of the Congressional Budget Office has testified that the new law will mean 800,000 fewer American jobs over the next decade.
Even where the law tries to help small businesses, it misses the mark. For example, I have long been a proponent of tax credits to help small businesses cover employee health insurance costs. The new credits for small businesses in the health care law, however, are poorly structured. They are phased out in such a way that businesses will actually be penalized when they hire new workers or pay their employees more. Moreover, they are temporary and can only be claimed for two years in the insurance exchanges to be established under the new law.
Finally, I am very concerned that the new law is paid for, in part, through more than $500 billion cuts to Medicare, a program which already is facing long-term financing problems. It simply does not make sense to rely on deep cuts in Medicare to finance a new entitlement program at a time when the number of seniors is on the rise. We need to fix and save Medicare, not add to its financial strain.
According to the Administration’s own chief actuary, these deep cuts could push one in five hospitals, nursing homes, and home health providers into the red. Many of these providers could simply stop taking Medicare patients, which would jeopardize access to care for millions of seniors.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The bitter rhetoric and partisan gridlock over the past few years have obscured the very important fact that there are many health care reforms that have overwhelming support in both parties.
For example, we should be able to agree on generous tax credits for self-employed individuals and small businesses to help them afford health insurance, thus reducing the number of uninsured. We should be able to agree on insurance market reforms that would prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to children who have pre-existing conditions, permit children to remain on their parents’ policies until age 26, require standardized claim forms to reduce costs, and allow consumers to purchase insurance across state lines.
We should be able to agree on delivery system reforms that reward value rather than volume and quality over quantity, and that increase transparency throughout the health care system. And we should be able to agree on ways to address the serious health care workforce shortages that plague rural and small town America. Simply having an insurance card will do you no good if there is no one available to provide the care.
In short, we should repeal ObamaCare. We need to work together to draft a health care bill that achieves the consensus goals of providing more choices, containing health care costs, improving quality and access, and making health care coverage more affordable for all Americans.
