What is the healthcare reform alternative?

There is no disagreement from reasonable American's that the current system is too expensive and needs reform.

The alternatives are not only 1) Current system as is, or 2) Rush and spend a trillion dollar government controlled plan supported by the President and the Democratic majority in Congress

Here are common sense practical principles for a bi-partisan solution that a majority of American's are likely to support.

Focus on better health and reducing waste and fraud

Root out Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse that could save $60B-120B per year

Reform medical liability laws to discourage frivolous lawsuits, and save up to $100B per year in defensive medicine practices

Reducing fraud and frivolous lawsuits could save $1.6-$2.2 trillion dollars over the span of 10 years

Encourage and incentivize well coordinated care, wellness and preventive services that can delay the onset of chronic care which accounts for 75% of all health care costs

Allow small businesses to ban together to purchase health insurance like large corporations do

Allow health insurance to be portable across state lines to increase choice and competition

Encourage and incentivize movement to a health based style of health reform of maximizing and finding the best outcomes in America, learning how to share those with everyone, and having every hospital and doctor move to an improved and better outcome system

Allow for health savings accounts (HSA) so that families can benefit from tax savings

These kinds of changes do not require a government takeover of the healthcare system or massive new spending, or job killing taxes or rationing of care as is found in the current plan before congress

Why are the President and Congressional Democrat’s advocating this kind of unprecedented government intervention?

The President and his supporters claim 40-50 million people in America (13% to 16.5% out of 300 million American’s) are without health care and or do not have access to affordable health care

Is the number really that high, and are there really no alternatives to their plan?

The National Center for Policy Analysis has researched this in more detail, below are their highlights and some of my stats.

The Census Bureau estimates the uninsured to be 45.7 million, of which 10 million are not citizens; any politicians and media claims above 35.9 million are inflated
o 17 million (37%) of the uninsured make at least $50,000 per year
o 8.4 million (18%) make $50,000 to $74,999 per year
o 9.1 million (20%) make $75,000 or higher

The National Center for Policy Analysis estimates that uninsured people receive $1,500 of free health care per year, $6,000 per family of four

Urban Institute found that 25% of the uninsured already qualify for existing government health insurance programs

The Liberal Kaiser Family Foundation reports that Americans who do not qualify for government programs and make less than $50,000 a year are between 8.2 million and 13.9 million.

Were going to radically transform the entire system into a government run bureaucracy for 95-97% of the population in order to solve issues related to 3-5% of the population?

Why not focus on the real problems associated with the 3-5% that may not have coverage, versus radical government control on the other 95%-97% that have coverage?

The Congressional Budget Office says 45 percent of the uninsured will be insured within four months (changing jobs)

Up to 36 million people would elect to remain uninsured even if the current $1.6 trillion health care plan is passed

This means 79% of the un-insured would elect to remain un-insured, they just don’t want to sign-up for a plan

I remember when I was a teenager and in my early 20’s, I never signed up for a healthcare insurance plan, even though I could have afforded to pay for one

Current Healthcare Plan on Capitol Hill

The current plan in Congress fully supported by President Obama would increase spending by $2 trillion dollars when fully implemented.

Didn’t we just spend over $800 billion on a Stimulus package that hasn’t delivered what they said it would deliver?

Over 2.3 million expected jobs never materialized, even the New York Times had to acknowledge this fact NYT's article

Is this the kind of change folks thought they’d be getting?

According to the Congressional Budget office the current Healthcare plan will add additional and burdensome costs onto an already unsustainable system

The current plan would empower Washington, not doctors and patients to make healthcare decisions. This is a link to the new bureaucracy that would be created -- visual of the plan

It would impose new taxes on working families during a recession

A research study conducted by the Lewin Group shows how the current healthcare plan will move millions of people happy with their current insurance to a government run plan

The current plan will be funded by dramatically raising taxes on small business owners, small businesses typically create 2/3’s of all new jobs

In our current economic situation and an urgent need for new jobs, the last thing the President and Congress should do is impose additional taxes on top of already struggling small businesses. This would cripple job creation, especially for low wage earners

The Congressional Budget Office Director recently testified before congress and told the Senate budget committee that the healthcare plan drafted by the Democratic majority would worsen the U.S. economic outlook by increasing deficits and driving our nation more deeply into debt

The Healthcare Debate

The current healthcare reform plan produced by Congressional Democrats and supported by President Obama would be a disaster for the economy, and result in an unprecedented government encroachment on the healthcare industry. You can follow the bill at OpenCongress.org -- HR 3200