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March 21, 2010 Contact: Robert Reilly
Deputy Chief of Staff
Office: (717) 600-1919
 
  For Immediate Release    

Congressman Platts' Statement in Opposition to Health Care Legislation

 

 

 

“All members of Congress agree that the status quo in health care is unacceptable and that we must act to make affordable, quality health care accessible for all Americans.  The legislation before us today, however, is the wrong solution.  Simply put, it is bad public policy.

Throughout the debate on health care reform, I have emphasized that Congress must be certain to adhere to the physician’s principle of “First, do no harm.”  Unfortunately, the Senate-passed health care bill (H.R. 3590) and reconciliation legislation (H.R. 4278) that we are considering today will do significant harm. 

A primary focus of health care reform must be on bringing down the rapidly rising cost of health care and health insurance.  Instead, the legislation before us today costs over $1 trillion in the first ten years.  When fully implemented, the proposed plan’s costs will total more than $200 billion per year.  That’s $2 trillion in additional health care-related costs over the course of the plan’s first full decade of implementation.  Once the budgetary gimmicks are stripped away, the legislation before us will increase the overall budget deficit dramatically.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the proposed legislation will do significant additional harm as well.  CBO analysis concludes that health insurance premiums in the individual market will increase by 10-13%, Medicare will be cut by more than $500 billion, taxes will increase by $579 billion, and millions of Americans will ultimately be forced off private health insurance plans into government-run plans. 

Countless new taxes are included in the proposed health care legislation.  For example, new taxes would be imposed on:  individuals without health insurance; employers, whether they provide health insurance for their employees or not; certain employer-provided health insurance plans, more-and-more of them over time; medical devices, like wheelchairs and walkers; investment income; Flexible Spending Accounts; and health insurers and pharmaceutical companies, taxes that are likely to be passed along to their customers.

The proposed legislation’s cuts to Medicare will detrimentally impact millions of senior citizens.  For example, CBO estimates that, as drafted, the cuts to Medicare Advantage funding will result in approximately 4.8 million seniors losing access to such plans.  Plans in which they chose to enroll.

The process by which we are considering these bills is also wrong.  Ordinarily, the reconciliation process is used to pass legislation making changes in existing federal programs or taxes. The reconciliation legislation under consideration today will make changes to a health care bill that has yet to even be enacted.  Importantly, there is no guarantee that the reconciliation bill will be passed in the Senate.  This means that the House would be effectively trusting that the Senate health care bill will be “fixed” by the reconciliation process, even as the Senate health care bill is approved by the House and becomes law.

The entire health care reform legislative process has been tainted by proposals offered along the way to gain votes – like the infamous “Cornhusker Kickback,” as well as special provisions for other states that have undermined confidence in the final product.  Similarly, the House leadership’s initial plan of using a “deem-and-pass” legislative tactic – enacting the Senate bill into law without a straight up-or-down vote – greatly diminished the American people’s trust in this legislation’s provisions.

Rather than enacting the legislation before us today, Congress should restart the process and enact common sense health care reforms that have bipartisan support.  Reforms such as small business health insurance pools, medical malpractice liability reform, tax credits and deductions for health care expenses, and insurance reforms addressing the issues of pre-existing conditions and wrongful coverage termination will better ensure access to affordable, quality health care for all Americans, while also adhering to the physician’s principle of “First, do no harm.””   

 

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