Health Care Reform:
The Cure Shouldn’t Be Worse Than the Problem!

by Kevin McCarthy,
Congressman for the 22nd District and Cheif Deputy Whip

The future of America’s health care stands at a crossroads. We all know that our current health care system has many problems, especially that health care costs make it difficult for families to afford coverage, leaving millions of Americans uninsured or underinsured. Unfortunately, some in Congress are pushing for “reforms” that would lead to a government takeover of health care through a government-run “public” plan. But this “public” plan does little to control rising health care costs – even the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office stated that the proposed reforms would not reduce Federal health care spending, but instead “expand the Federal responsibility for health care costs.”

By giving the Federal Government more control over our health care, the Pelosi health care bill ensures that Washington bureaucrats and politicians - not us and our doctors - have a larger say in our own health care decisions.

The result could be longer waiting times to get the treatment we currently get now, or not getting treatment at all because the government made a cost-cutting decision.

For example, just look at the consequences of Canada’s government-run health care - a Buffalo, New York hospital delivers Canadian babies each year because of rationing of services north of the border. Canadian citizens are forced to cross the border to get the care they need. Additionally, when it comes to families getting the quality care that is needed, I think of my father who passed away from cancer almost a decade ago. I am grateful he was able to receive the care he needed, with the choice of when, where and how to get what was recommended by doctors he trusted. Compare that to cancer treatment in the British government-run health care program. A recent clinical study found that the U.S. had an 83% five-year breast cancer survival rate compared to that in Great Britain (69%). Similarly, when it came to prostate cancer, the U.S. had a 91% five-year survival rate, compared to the 51% survival rate in Great Britain.

Furthermore, the House health reform proposal would force millions of Americans to lose their current health care coverage, whether they like their coverage or not. An independent research firm, the Lewin Group, predicts that the proposed government health care takeover could force two out of every three Americans out of their current coverage. The full estimate: 114 million Americans would be forced out of their current private health coverage. Americans want health care improved, not health care dictated by government bureaucrats.

We know that reforming health care doesn’t mean rushed debate and ramming through hundreds of pages of legislation to create a Federal health bureaucracy that micromanages our health care as quickly as possible. We know that reforming health care means making improvements that focus on one thing: patients and their families. That is why my colleagues and I listened to American families when crafting our plan to find patient-centered solutions.

First, we need to protect the choice of individuals and families when it comes to choosing doctors and treatments. This means allowing Americans that like their health care to be able to keep the coverage and the choices they currently have.

Second, we can make health care more affordable and accessible for all by keeping what we know works and expanding care through reforms and tax relief. Our plan makes health care more affordable by extending tax savings to those who do not have employer-provided insurance, providing new, refundable tax credits to low and modest income Americans, allowing small businesses to band together and offer group health insurance at lower costs, enacting common-sense medical liability reform to reduce the high cost of “defensive” medicine, and generating savings incentives by improving health savings accounts and flexible spending arrangements for future health care needs.

Third, reform should not come at the price of jobs. Far too many ideas coming out of this Congress deal with government takeovers - of our financial institutions, our energy, our cars, and now our health care. And all of these ideas have the common denominators of more government control, more Federal spending, more Washington borrowing, and more debt for our children and grandchildren to pay off. The Pelosi health care reform bill ($1.5 trillion) dwarfs the bank bailout ($700 billion) and the stimulus ($1.1 trillion, interest included) that has yet to create the promised jobs or economic growth. And to pay for all the spending, our nation must take on more debt and Americans and small businesses will see their taxes increased. In fact, the Pelosi health care proposal taxes over fifty percent of men and women who run small businesses. As California struggles with double-digit unemployment, we need to focus on helping, not harming, these job generators – after all, small businesses create over 70 percent of America’s jobs.

Until we can have a real debate on solutions that respect Americans’ ability to make their own health care decisions, I cannot support this bill. Passage of this government takeover of health care will ensure that the only thing driven down more than the quality of health care is our nation’s fiscal health.