Commentary
President Barack Obama’s health care law was, and remains, one of the more unpopular pieces of legislation in recent history. It was rammed through Congress along partisan lines, will spend trillions of dollars taking choices away from the American people, raises taxes, and raids Medicare.
The 2 years of bait and switch from President Obama about what his law would do has not convinced the American people, because they understand that at its core the law represents a fundamental change in the relationship between the people and their government. Continued public opposition is a direct response to this massive government intrusion into Americans’ personal lives.
(For a counterpoint on the 2012 election, click here.)
Rep. Tom Price (R-GA)
As I read the selling of the president’s health care law, it has consisted of one ruse after another:
• If you have insurance that you like, then you will be able to keep that insurance. In fact, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that up to 20 million people could lose their employer coverage under the law.
• If you’ve got health insurance, we’re going to work with you to lower your premiums by $2,500 per family per year. Since making this promise, the average premium for a family plan has increased by more than $3,000. And according to the CBO, the law will drive up costs by nearly $2,400 when fully phased in.
• Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. According the CBO, 3 million Americans who live in families that earn less than $120,000 per year will be hit by the individual mandate tax in 2016.
• We’re not going to mess with Medicare. Rather than save Medicare for today's retirees and future generations, the law raids Medicare by $716 billion to pay for its new spending. The majority of these cuts, more than $400 billion, fall on hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and home health agencies. And according to Medicare’s own chief actuary, 15% of these providers will go into the red by 2019, jeopardizing seniors’ access to care.
President Obama’s $2 trillion health care law will drive up costs, drive down quality, and drive the best and brightest out of medicine. It raises taxes on middle-income families, forces millions of Americans off the coverage they already have, and does nothing to prevent the collapse of a Medicare program teetering on the edge of insolvency.
Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) has committed to repealing this disastrous law beginning on his first day in office. And he has put forward a plan to replace the president’s health care law with reforms that focus on greater patient choice and control, lower costs, and better access for every American. Under Gov. Romney’s approach, Americans will be able to purchase health coverage on the same tax-preferred basis as employers do. And he would pursue robust reforms so that control over health care decisions resides with patients, families, and doctors, instead of Washington politicians and bureaucrats.
What’s more, Gov. Romney has put forward a proposal that actually protects Medicare for current seniors and strengthens the program for future generations. Unlike President Obama, he will make no changes for those seniors on Medicare today or for those who will enroll in the next 10 years.
Future generations will have a Medicare system that works like the health care program members of Congress already have. Seniors will have the option of choosing from a set of Medicare-approved, guaranteed-coverage plans. And among these choices will be the traditional Medicare plan that exists today. The government will provide financial support to help cover the cost of whatever health plan the senior chooses, with more support for the sick and the poor and less for the wealthy. Simply put, Gov. Romney’s plan empowers 50 million seniors across the country, along with their families and doctors, to make the health care choices that are right for them, not 15 bureaucrats in Washington.
Our health care system is the best in the world, but it faces serious challenges. President Obama’s solution was to spend trillions of dollars we don’t have and empower federal regulators we don’t need, all the while raising taxes on families and job creators. The president’s health care law takes what’s broken in health care and makes it worse. Gov. Romney will repeal this law. And he will replace it with reforms that address the challenges in health care without putting Washington in charge.
Rep. Tom Price (R) represents Georgia’s 6th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is an orthopedic surgeon and a supporter of Romney/Ryan 2012.