Wrong for America

At a time when the United States sorely needs real healthcare reform, we have somehow allowed Congress to make a series of poor choices.  Congress has chosen a version of healthcare legislation and a method of passing it that are wrong for America.

They have lost sight of the goal – Americans want to reduce health care costs across the country while providing meaningful, dignified healthcare access to those citizens who do not have it.   Instead, Congress offers us solutions that will likely raise costs, reduce access for most and put government bureaucrats rather then physicians in charge of our healthcare options – all the while putting the earning capacity of many of the working poor directly at risk.

No one likes the way insurance companies handle our claims or deny us coverage.  So, what does Congress do?  They plan to mandate that everyone in the country purchase insurance.  Brilliant.  As Attorney General Greg Abbott pointed out earlier this year, this mandate is not only misguided, it is likely unconstitutional as well.

Congress rejects the idea of allowing insurance companies to compete across state lines, which would create increased and (if government requires the right disclosures) open competition and lower costs.   Instead, they hand the keys of the healthcare bus directly to insurance companies and make sure that everyone is required to buy fairly extensive and expensive coverage, whether we want it our not.  It makes no sense.

Should we forgive Congress for not developing a truly workable plan because the plight of the poor is so great and the need is so immediate?  We could be tempted to do so until we remember that the benefits for the chronically uninsured are not scheduled to begin for four years.  The very people this legislation is designed to protect will need to wait four more years without any real assistance. 

Many citizens in this country do not – for any number of reasons - have access to good healthcare insurance.  That problem can be tackled immediately through allowing charitable groups across the country to fund healthcare and its related insurance.  Congress can help by making some of our contributions to those charities immediately eligible for a tax credit, not just a deduction.  That money could start flowing today, not four years from now.  Americans could easily pour $100 billion into this solution within a year’s time.  This solution was presented to the House of Representatives last December but it fell on deaf ears.

The Senate has been no more help.  Senatorial leadership was apparently much too busy in December buying votes through the Louisiana Purchase and the Cornhusker Kickback (thanks to Senators Landrieu and Nelson) to address the genuine needs of the American people.  Their bill, like the House bill, is a job-killer that requires businesses who hire a largely hourly work force (like restaurants, for example) to provide healthcare insurance or pay a fine per employee.  These hourly workers – often the  working poor - will be the first to be laid off.  They may ultimately have healthcare insurance some day, but they will not have jobs.  This is not a trade off we can live with as a country.

If anyone has forgotten, the Senate plan will cost in the trillions once the benefits begin to start.  Our debt-laden government can afford no more.

And now, rather than developing a workable and affordable plan, our Congress wants to ignore the pleas of between 59% and 74% of the American people and instead rush its misguided bill through the “reconciliation” process as soon as this week.  Congress is  focused on passing the bill before its members must return to their districts for the Spring recess.  Do you really think any member of Congress who intends to vote for the bill is willing first to be held accountable at a constituent town hall?  Of course not.  Better to hide in Washington and pass the bill first.

We the people know what is going on here.  The bill – and its process of passage – are wrong for America.