Unintended Consequences

According the the Congressional Budget Office, the current Healthcare Reform bills before congress would in fact result in a slight increase in the number of workers who would get coverage through their employer. The CBO reports that the employer mandate in H.R. 3200 will result in a net increase of 3 million workers with employment-based health insurance (1.7 percent). President Obama embraced this and quickly called it out as a positive step forward. However, the President should continue reading. The report goes on to say:

• The mandate will cause 9 million mostly low-wage and part-time workers to lose their employment-based health insurance.
• Cost businesses at least $49 billion per year
• Put 5.2 million low-wage workers at risk of unemploy­ment or reduced working hours
• Put another 10.2 million workers at risk of slower wage growth and cuts in other benefits

( source: CBO Report )

We can not afford this kind of reform. Reform can be achieved in ways that will not be destructive to our economy, system of government, and our children’s future.

Nina Owcharenko of the Heritage Foundation in her article “Five Major Faults with the Health Care Bills” suggests that legislators should:

1. Promote State Innovation. Congress should preserve the states’ autonomy over their health care systems and give them greater legal freedom to devise solutions that meet the unique characteristics of their citizens. In addition, individuals should also have the freedom to purchase coverage from trusted sources and not be restricted by where they happen to live. This means that Americans should be able to buy better coverage across state lines. Congress should respect and encourage personal freedom and diversity.
2. Establish Fairness in the Tax Treatment of Health Insurance. There is little disagreement that today’s health care tax policy–which favors coverage obtained through the workplace–distorts the market and is inequitable. Instead of expanding government-run programs like Medicaid, policymakers should offer tax relief to those individuals who purchase private health insurance on their own, regardless of where they work.At the same time, Congress should make sure that tax relief goes only to taxpayers. Congress should also devise a voucher program, giving low-income citizens the opportunity to get private coverage if they wish to do so. There is a broad bipartisan consensus that Congress should help low-income working families with direct assistance to enable them to get health insurance.
3. Get Serious About Entitlement Reform. Medicare and Medicaid, the giant health care entitlement programs, are not only increasingly costly, but they are also not delivering value to the taxpayers. The best way to secure value to patients (not government officials) is to compel health providers to compete directly for consumer dollars by allowing seniors and the poor to choose the coverage that is right for them using the money that is already available to them in these programs. This will “bend the cost curve” while at the same time allowing private-sector innovation to flourish.

Consumer-Driven Reform

Americans want to fix the problems in the health care system–but not at the expense of their own coverage. It is time policymakers recognize the lack of support for a major overhaul. But instead of continuing to protect the status quo, Congress should advance improvements that put the health care system on a path to reform.

Such improvements should be focused on increasing choice and competition not by turning control over to Washington but by empowering individuals and families to control their health care dollars and decisions.

(source: Five Major Faults with the Health Care Bills )