Health Care Reform

         **Click here to download

a copy of H.R. 3590**

Providing effective and affordable health care is one of the greatest challenges facing the health profession, insurers, and local, state, and federal governments.  I have heard similar concerns from numerous Idahoans and understand the burden that high insurance and medical costs place on working families, and especially on seniors with fixed incomes.  Our nation’s families should not be forced to forfeit vital necessities in order to afford adequate health care. 

Congress must work to improve not only the access of health care, but also the quality of health care.  However, recent proposals do not appear to accomplish either of these goals.  Since the Senate voted on Christmas Eve to approve H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, there has been plenty of discussion about the state of health reform.  On February 25, President Obama invited Members of Congress to attend a health care summit at the Blair House.  Unfortunately, I am very discouraged by the outcome of the summit because the focus was essentially the same thing that we have been talking about for months – a massive expansion of the role of the federal government, higher taxes for millions of Americans and drastic cuts to the Medicare program.  Many of my Republican colleagues came to the summit with a number of substantive ideas and proposals on how to lower costs and increase quality in health care without resorting to a government takeover of our nation’s health care system.  Unfortunately, the President’s insistence that essentially the same bill that we have been debating for months serve as the template for reform precludes genuine bipartisan reform.  Americans have made it very clear that this is not the kind of reform that they want. Now, the House of Representatives plans to use budget reconciliation, a procedure that is primarily used to implement spending and revenue provisions, as a way to pass this unpopular bill.  There is even the possibility that the House Democratic Leadership will use a strategy, known as the “Slaughter Solution”, which would allow the House to avoid an actual vote on the Senate health care bill.  Despite recent polls showing that nearly ¾ of Americans either oppose health care reform or want Congress to start over, the President and Democrats insist on using any means possible to accomplish their goal of “reform”.

To preserve and strengthen the U.S. health care system, we must promote fiscally responsible policies that offer private market choices and access to care for all Americans.  As health care costs continue to rise, we must bend the growth curve of spending by looking for savings within the system.  Most importantly, we must protect the rights of Americans to keep their own doctor, their existing coverage and the right to make their own health care decisions. A one-size-fits-all government approach to health care would not only eliminate these freedoms, but also result in decreased quality of care, choice and access. 

Instead of giving the government more power over health care, individual patients must be given more control, choice, and information to make their health care decisions.  When individual patients have these choices, they will reward innovative insurers and providers who reduce costs and improve quality.  Providing quality health care for all citizens must remain a priority for this Congress.  Please know that I will continue to work with my Senate colleagues to improve our system of health care. 

Listed below are several health care reform options under consideration; the links are provided for research and resource convenience only and their presence here should not be construed as my support or opposition to any of the measures below.

• Text of the Senate bill introduced by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) on November 18, 2009.  Click here to download a copy of the bill; please note the bill is over 2,000 pages long.
• Read the CBO Report on the Reid bill.  Click here to download a copy of the report, which runs 36 pages.
• Senate Finance Committee Chairman Baucus introduced a conceptual proposal that was debated in the Senate Finance Committee in September 2009.  Click here to download a copy of the proposal; click here to read updated Joint Committee on Taxation revenue estimates of the proposal.
• President Obama's Joint Address To Congress on health care reform, September 9, 2009.  Click here to link to transcript of speech; click here to more details from the Administration regarding the Obama plan.
• H.R. 3200 (PDF file, 1,017 pages, 1.75 MB)
• S. 391, Healthy Americans Act (PDF file, 168 pages, 43 KB)
• Senate HELP Committee legislative summary

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