Why Rethink?
Problems with the current reform
While we agree with Congress that reforms are necessary, their current proposals are too big, too expensive, and have too many unintended consequences.
Too Big. Our health care system needs to be reformed—not replaced.
- The bill passed by the House of Representatives clocks in at a staggering 2,016 pages; the Senate bill is 2,074. Each is full of new mandates, regulations, taxes, and fines, many of which would increase the government’s involvement in the health care choices you make.
- The House bill would create 111 new government bureaucracies—with names like the “Personal Care Attendant Workforce Advisory Panel,” and the “Advisory Committee on Health Workforce Evaluation and Assessment”—to oversee a complex and costly system of federal health requirements.
- Among these requirements is a law that makes it illegal to not carry insurance. Individuals would either have to purchase a plan that meets the government’s requirements, or pay a fine—2.5% of your income (in the House bill), or $750 per adult (Senate bill).
- The bill passed by the House will cost at least $1 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). We say “at least” because the CBO only evaluated the costs from 2010 to 2019. From 2020 to 2029, the federal government could spend hundreds of billions of additional taxpayer dollars.
- The House bill would cover part of its enormous cost with thirteen new taxes - including many middle class Americans. The Senate bill raises Medicare payroll taxes, and adds additional taxes on higher-cost insurance plans and plastic surgery.
- In both the House and the Senate bills, part of the cost is supposed to be covered by cuts in Medicare reimbursements to various medical service providers. And yet, Congress has been avoiding these politically-unpopular cuts since 2003.
- On November 19, Congress continued this trend. The House passed H.R. 3961, also known as the “doc fix.” While ensuring fair reimbursement for doctors is a noble goal, the House did so without providing adequate funding—thus leaving an $89 billion hole in the federal deficit.
- Congress has declared that these reforms will reduce costs in the future—or “bend the cost curve.” But, according to a recent study using actual insurance industry data, the costs that matter to consumers—the money that they’re paying each month for health insurance—will most likely increase under the proposed legislation.
- For instance, in Massachusetts—a state that has tried similar reforms on its own—premiums have increased as more residents take advantage of subsidized health plans, and the government adds more requirements to the individual insurance requirements.
- President Obama claims, “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.” But under the most recent House bill, individuals can only keep their plans as long as the terms of the coverage, and the price paid, remain unchanged. And employer-provided plans can only remain the same for five years, after which they must meet the federal insurance mandate.
