November 9, 2009

Health Care Must Be Fiscally Responsible

The need for health care reform is clear, but the legislation just passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, which I voted against, represented an irresponsible increase in federal spending and was seriously flawed in major ways:

1. The Affordable Health Care for America Act (HR 3962), costs more than $1 trillion – on top of the $12 trillion debt this country already owes!  Simply put, it is not affordable at all.   
2.  It does not take the steps necessary to effectively bring down health care costs and the long-term growth of health care reform which is needed to get our economy growing again. As President Obama said in his speech to Congress, “If we do nothing to slow these skyrocketing costs, we will eventually be spending more on Medicare and Medicaid than every other government program combined.”  We must address the long-term cost to get our fiscal house in order and get our economy moving again in the right direction.
3. It raises too much in new taxes and imposes new requirements that will harm the ability of too many small businesses to compete and create jobs;
4. The bill spends too much while making drastic cuts in others that directly benefit our area, such as cuts in home health care and skilled nursing care – two of the very things that are working well in Southeastern North Carolina;
5. There would also be a negative impact on Medicare payments which are so important for our area’s rural hospitals and directly impact patient care.  We cannot afford to sacrifice the health benefits that are already working to help people; and
6. It tries to do too much too soon instead of focusing on targeted changes that can immediately help people.

To achieve needed reforms and improvements in health care, we should instead tackle health care reform in more targeted ways which are fiscally responsible.  Some of the targeted ways that can immediately help include:

1. Strengthening Medicare and Medicaid,
2. improving Medicare reimbursement for rural health providers,
3. expanding the use of electronic medical records,
4. expanding and strengthening community health centers;
5. allowing small business owners to join pools of coverage to access better insurance rates,
6. allowing states to form compacts to allow the purchase of insurance across state lines, and
7. providing tax credits for long-term care. 

These are just some of the many examples where we can make needed health care changes without further bankrupting the country, and I remain committed to meaningful reform that maintains cost-effective principles that puts our nation again on the path to prosperity.