Today House Democrats passed yet another bill that adds hundreds of billions of dollars to the deficit. In an awkward attempt to fix the formula that determines doctor’s reimbursement rates, Democrats have buried us deeper in debt only to replace one flawed formula with another.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Democrats’ “doc fix” bill, H.R. 3961, will increase the deficit by $210 billion. Economists report that the bill will add an additional $1.9 trillion to Medicare’s unfunded liabilities over the next 75 years. Medicare’s current unfunded liabilities already stand at a staggering $37.8 trillion according to this year’s trustees’ report.
The United States is facing an urgent financial crisis that threatens our fiscal and economic stability. Our government is currently borrowing about 50 cents for every dollar we spend. Medicare is already paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes and Social Security is expected to do the same in less than five years.
I strongly support a permanent fix to the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR). Today I voted for the Republican alternative that would provide physicians with a 2% payment rate increase over the next four years without adding to our growing deficit. Using savings generated from a combination of medical liability reform, streamlining and simplifying administrative policies for health insurance plans, and existing resources from the “Medicare Improvement Fund” we can ensure that doctors are properly reimbursed without drowning our country in debt.
I object to anything that adds a tax to elective surgeries. Elective surgeries are generally not paid for by any insurance and it is wrong to tax people who choose to spend their own, hard-earned money this way. Although not medically necessary, many elective surgeries are not a luxury and do improve the quality of life tremendously. Those who elect for these surgeries and pay for them should not be required to pay such a tax to help pay for a system of health care that excludes them anyway. I demand my representatives and congressmen vote against any health care “reform” that includes such a tax.
It’s disturbing to see how when it comes to healthcare you talk in terms of money. Forget money, it’s not all about it. Think about people’s health and people’s life. Where are your statistics in terms of people dying as result of not having health insurance. What are the items on your alternative bill which will fix this problem?
I just read the “Health Care Takeover” mailer sent out by you. I was not impressed.
Many of the “Conservative Alternatives” you list are in the current bill being proposed by the democrats. While the conservatives bemoan Roe vs. Wade and are still fighting to make sure that abortions are only available to those that can afford it, they offer no alternatives to those that cannot. I would not be so crass as to send you a bloody coat hanger, but just what do you think would happen if your “Alternative” bill became law? Hundreds of thousands of unwanted babies born to those who are ill equipt to raise them. Just how many crack babies do you think Social Services can deal with considering that they are already overworked dealing with the babies they have now. You claim to fiscially conservative so perhaps you can explain the difference in the cost of an abortion as opposed to the cost of the state raising a child.
Here’s a little question and an answer no politition dares touch. What is the major problem facing America and the rest of the world? War? Climate change? Drugs? Rampant liberalism? Nope. Too many people. Face it, the human race is breeding like flies. Any decrease in the 1st world growth is more than made up for in the 3rd world. And they all need resources; food, education, medical care, housing, etc. – and they have no money. And so now everyone south wants to move north, not just in the Americas but in Europe as well. By 2050, there’ll be almost twice as many people in the world as there are today. Do you think that the resouces will double as well? Malthus postulated that this problem will be solved by wars or a plague. What do you think the solution will be?
Costs of the Health Care Bill – I don’t believe your CBO numbers for either side as they are based on a bill which is yet to be modified.
Blaming the democrats for deficit spending. Boy, if that isn’t pot calling the kettle black, I don’t know what is. That deficit number you run on you home page is largely your party’s fault, isn’t it? You call the democrats’ policy “tax and spend” terrible but your party’s policy was (and still is) “borrow and spend”. Suffer now or later, huh? It wasn’t the democrats that dug the hole that you and the Bush conservatives put us in. It wasn’t the democrats that permitted the banks to play the games that came very close to destroying the financial foundation of out country. It was your party.
I’d be interested to know what your feelings are about the above.
Stewart Hearl
Thanks for supporting physicians who are NOT the main cost associated with health care. And thanks for keeping your eye on fiscal responsibility and limited deficit spending. Please keep pushing for liability reform, which causes poor care, expensive care and often dangerous care due to over-testing and over-treating while simultaneously limiting the availability of treatment as demonstrated in Corpus Christi. This sad situation was resolved when the reforms were put into place. Now patients have access to good care, physicians have lower overhead due to lower premiums, they waste less time and energy on frivolous lawsuits and have more time to care for patients. Lawsuits do not prevent bad care- loss of licensure and clinical privileges does. this should be the remedy, not torts which only serve to line the pockets of such individuals as John O’Quinn, without helping patients.
It would be nice to see the Republican version of the “fix”, just as it would be nice to see the pr0posed Democrat legislation. Whatever is done would be best done initially as demonstration projects to be sure the theory bears out in reality. Just look at Massachusetts to see a good idea gone bad- do we want that for the whole country?