Posted by
Defend America on Monday, March 15, 2010 11:09:05 PM
Rep. Paul Ryan on what real health reform should look like
By Paul Ryan
Monday, March 15, 2010
Today, the House Budget Committee is to mark up a "reconciliation" vehicle,
initiating the greatest expansion in government and entitlement
spending in a generation through a partisan process to push
"health-care reform" across the finish line.
Despite claims of transparency and calls for a "simple up-or-down vote," there is
nothing simple about this process.
This convoluted legislative charade demonstrates how far the Democratic
majority has wandered from real health-care reform and cost control,
employing any means to achieve political victory.
Through any analytical lens, the legislation will not address the central problem of skyrocketing health-care costs. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that families' premiums could rise 10 to 13 percent;
private-sector actuarial estimates top these already high numbers. The
higher costs are driven by federalizing the regulation of insurance,
narrowing consumers' options and reducing competition among providers.
The health-care market would be dominated by government programs and
the largest insurance companies, operating as de facto government
utilities.
Rather than tackle the drivers of health inflation, the legislation
chases the ever-increasing premiums with huge new subsidies. Already,
Washington has no idea how to pay for the unfunded promises in
Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security -- and creating this new
entitlement would accelerate our path to fiscal ruin. When you strip
away the double-counting, expose the hidden costs that must be funded
and look at the price tag when the legislation is fully implemented,
the claims of deficit reduction are as hollow as claims of cost
containment.
This legislation includes a range of job-killing tax hikes and
controls on all Americans -- to fund this new entitlement and to
penalize employers and individuals who don't play by Washington's new
rules. The CBO said last July that "requiring employers to offer health insurance, or pay a fee if they do not, is likely to reduce employment."
The mix of mandates and higher costs will drive Americans into
government exchanges, with an ever-enlarging number reliant upon
taxpayer subsidies for their care. The architecture is designed to give
the government greater control over what kind of insurance is
available, how much health care is enough and which treatments are
worth paying for.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/14/AR2010031401388.html