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Health care reform not a monster
TweetCongress wanted more time to study the health care bill, so we held off on voting until after August. This issue affects every American and is key to putting our country on the path to long-term economic stability. I’m pleased that we have more time.
However, a lot of groups are using this time to spend millions of dollars to spread harmful myths designed to confuse and frighten you. I’d like to set the record straight on a few of the myths I hear the most.
1. Reforming health care will not lead to out of control deficit spending. The bill is paid for. Half of the bill is paid for in health care sector savings and half through a new surcharge on the richest 1 percent of Americans. Doing nothing, however, will lead to bigger deficits that will eat our budget alive.
2. This legislation will not insure illegal aliens. Here is the exact language in the bill: “Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.”
3. This legislation will not create a government-run health care system. If you have employer-based private health care, and you like it, keep it. It will remain private and you will keep your doctors. If you are a senior on Medicare, or are lower-income and currently receive your health care through Medicaid, your coverage will also stay the same. However, if you don’t work or if your employer doesn’t offer health care coverage, you will be eligible for the health insurance exchange. The exchange will include several private options and a public option.
Current Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates project that more than 80-percent of participants in the exchange will choose one of the private options. However, the presence of a public option will be good for competition. It will establish minimum coverage standards and prevent private insurers from excluding those with pre-existing conditions or dropping the sick from their rolls.
4. There is nothing in the bill that will lead to rationing health care. Currently, insurance companies make many major health decisions. This bill puts that important power in your hands and your doctors’ hands. In other words, insurance companies will no longer be able to ration care by retroactively canceling policies when patients become sick or refuse to cover important services.
5. Offering a public insurance option, as just one of the choices available to consumers, will not crowd out employer-based coverage. However, if we do nothing and costs continue to rise, more employers will be forced to drop coverage. If we reform the system and contain costs, which will help employers, they’ll keep offering coverage in order to compete for good workers in competitive labor market.
Affordability
6. This reform will not cost jobs even though it requires employers to offer health insurance or pay to opt out. Under our current system there is no requirement for employers to offer insurance, yet 99-percent of large firms do and nearly 65-percent of small firms do. For the firms offering coverage already, health reform will bring much needed competition and affordability to the insurance market. In addition, the smallest firms will be exempt. Finally, a 50-percent credit to help pay for premiums will be available for small businesses. In Ohio’s Sixth Congressional District, 11,300 small businesses could receive tax credits to help cover their employees.
7. Seniors’ coverage under Medicare will actually benefit, not be cut. Nine thousand two hundred seniors in my district, who currently get caught by the Medicare Part D donut hole in their prescription coverage will avoid that pitfall because we’re closing the hole. In addition, any cost savings by reducing waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare will be reinvested right back into Medicare. These reforms will help modernize the Medicare program and strengthen its financial health, protecting both Medicare beneficiaries and taxpayers. In addition, this bill will eliminate the 21 percent scheduled reduction in physician payments, which was planned for 2011, ensuring that seniors have access to the doctors they need and deserve.
8. There is a terrible myth being spread that health care reform promotes euthanasia. Not true. If a doctor and a patient choose to have a conversation about end-of-life care and advance care planning, this legislation simply provides Medicare the ability to pay for the doctors’ time. This type of counseling is already going on, and doctors should be the ones providing it to patients and families who wish to have it as they face a terminal illness and have to make decisions about pain management and resuscitation. Under the legislation, Medicare will reimburse for the doctor’s time once every five years or more often if the patient becomes significantly sicker. However, this legislation does not require that this conversation take place.
9. Finally, staying the course with our current health care system is not an option. Last year, just in my district, nearly 1,300 families had to declare bankruptcy because of health related expenses. Hospitals and doctors in my district provided $89 million to care for the uninsured. That cost was then passed on to those who had insurance, driving up rates. Without reform, the average cost for a family insurance policy increases by $1,800 each year. That means every year it becomes more unaffordable for small businesses to insure their employees and more unaffordable for families to go it alone.
Doing nothing will more than double all of our health costs over the next 10 years. That skyrocketing cost will strip millions more Americans of their coverage and it will send our deficit spending through the roof. That is the health care plan we choose by doing nothing.
X U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson is a Democrat from Ohio’s 6th Congressional District.
Comments
Charlie- people aren't buying everything that you selling and they're seeing through the socialized health care reform. Why don't you and Timmy stop hiding behind the media and face your constituents? When is the last time that anything that Congress has project came in at budget? How is this going to be paid for when the U.S. is down $340 billion in tax revenue for the 1st half of the year? The CBO project that 9 million people who have health care will join the universal system. I'd be willing to be that will be followed by another 9 million.. until we hit 350 million. Can you seriously expect anyone to believe that this will not result in rationing? That may not lead to euthanasia, but a denial of care is nothing less than euthanasia. IT WON'T cost jobs?? Seriously, many of the top 1% are employers. You really don't think that by taxing them that they won't cut jobs to make up that tax.
There has been too much expose in the text of the health care bill . Usually they bury their agenda that may infuriate the public in other legislation that has more pages of text .
I strongly oppose government-run health care. I would appreciate it if you and your ilk would stop refering to folks such as myself as "Un-American." You are frightening people who have mustered the courage to use their First Amendment rights.
Government-run healthcare is a failure everywhere. These failed models include MA, HI, CMS (due to be bankrupt in 2019), NHS (due to be bankrupt in 2 years, and that's after denying treatments like Herceptin to women with stage 4 breast cancer), France, Canada, and the VA. Even after long waits and rationing and denials of care, these programs are financially unsustainable.
HR3200 is simply unaffordable. Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Elmendorf told the Senate Budget Committee that none of the bills he has seen would contain health care costs to reduce them significantly over time. This is the main argument offered by Obama and Democrats as to why Congress can spend $1 trillion and save money.
“In the legislation that has been reported we do not see the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount,” Elmendorf said.
“And on the contrary, the legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health care costs.”
HR3200 doesn't state that it doesn't cover illegal aliens. Unless it does, than it will.
A public option will underprice the private options. My employer is always switching us to the cheapest (and usually worst) insurance. Many folks have already been informed that they will be switched to the public option when it's available. It will bankrupt the private insurers and lead to a single payer system.
You cannot cover all procedures and tests and treatments for all people. You will ration. The only question is whom and what are you going to ration? Elderly folks now covered under Medicare have as close to complete coverage as it gets right now. The reason you were cutting Medicare payments to physicians will still exist, and they are rightfully skeptical of your plan.
The choice is not between staus quo and HR3200. We can have real reform that does not involve a government takeover of 1/6 of the US economy. Rather than a plan that costs $1,000,000,000,000.00/10 years and has a 100% failure rate, we could adopt simpler but more effective measures such as Tort reform (proven to work in several states), free market reforms and improved hospital admission screening).
In a much broader sense, you guys don't know what you're doing. You've run up huge deficits, nearly tripled the money supply in 1 year that is expected to cause inflation, caused the mortgage crisis and then used it as a reason to socialize private businesses.
It is my hope that you and the rest of the ruling class are removed by the people in 2010 and replaced with citizens that can do basic math, have vision, and put their Nation before themselves.
The American people are at the end of their fuses, because for decades they have been supporting hundreds of thousands of businesses who hire illegal immigrants? Hundreds of billions of dollars are going into the pockets of corporate executives, because they pay--nothing--other than minimum wages to foreign nationals. Businesses are very well aware that taxpayers will keep supporting the 20 million plus already here, because a government mandated laws says its demanded of us? European Industrialized nations are also in the same place, having to deal with a EU parliament who are also forcing the same mandatory laws. In America there is a safety net for people who have lost their jobs and forced into the breadline?
But illegal alien families who broke our sovereignty laws, have intentionally taken advantage of public welfare and federal legislation that gives them a right to our schools, health care and a whole barrel of benefits instead of US residents. Now President Obama wants to give AMNESTY, rewarding these people for crossing our almost defenseless border. This must not happen to the American workers and the rest of our population, because the Heritage Foundation has stated that just in retirement and pensions it exceeds $2 Trillion dollars. Even legal immigrants numbers have accelerated to 1. 5 million annually. We need no more poor, uneducated to sustain in America. We must cut down quotas to only the skilled contributors, who will not become a public charges. Then does anybody have an answer for those who will come after this AMNESTY? Eventually the millions who will come here, will lead to irreversible OVERPOPULATION.
WE ALREADY HAVE IMMIGRATION LAWS, BUT HAVE SADLY BEEN UNENFORCED AND ARE NOT BROKEN? THE SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS, WANT ABSOLUTELY--NO RESTRICTIONS-- ON HOW MANY FOREIGN CHEAP LABOR CAN BE ALLOWED INTO THE US? OBSERVERS HAVE SEEN THE FINANCIAL IMPACT OF MASS ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION INTO THE SANCTUARY STATE OF CALIFORNIA?
Get involved with the power of E-Verify, a composite of the SAVE ACT, to remove illegal immigrants from businesses. Promote in addition 287(g) police law to question persons about their immigration status and stop the weakening of ICE raids and NO MATCH LAW. DON'T LET YOUR POLITICIAN GET AWAY WITH THESE IMMIGRATION TRAVESTIES? Like millions of livid Americans call 202-224-3121 GOOGLE NUMBERSUSA for the Facts, not lies.