Senate Health Care Proposal no Better than House's

In August I held a series of public town hall meetings and met with doctors, nurses and other health professionals in special health care forums. During those meetings, an overwhelming majority of attendees expressed deep concerns with H.R. 3200, the now infamous health care bill introduced in the House. Congress went back to work in early September and the House version of the health care bill was virtually dead-on-arrival. The Senate, however, is dealing with its own version, introduced recently by Senator Max Baucus. Unfortunately, it's still the wrong prescription for America's health care needs.

It's clear that the President and members of the Majority party in the House and Senate still haven't gotten the public's message - Americans do not want expensive, government-run health care. But, the Baucus plan is just that. It will raise the cost of health care, cut seniors' Medicare coverage, increase taxes on the middle class and drive our country further into debt. Simply put, the latest bill by Senator Baucus is no better than the bill that brought tens of thousands of Americans out to town hall meetings across the country in August.

The Baucus plan creates new taxes on families and small businesses. Specifically, it would pile on more than $400 billion in new taxes, according to numbers given by the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Congressional Budget Office. The Baucus plan would also reduce Medicare for seniors to the tune of almost $500 billion. But the Medicare program already has tens of millions of dollars of unfunded mandates that it cannot fulfill. I believe that any money we can save through Medicare reform should be reinvested in the Medicare program to better meet the needs of our nation's seniors. We should not slash benefits and reduce choices for those in their golden years to support a costly government-run health insurance plan that rations care.

There are a number of basic policy reforms that will bring down the cost of health care for all Americans. Congress should pass these measures rather than impose an expensive government takeover of the system. For example, we should create a national health care market that would allow individuals to shop for their health care insurance across state lines. Greater competition almost always results in better prices for the consumer. For this reason I think we should also create pooling mechanisms such as association health plans and individual membership accounts which give groups access to more affordable insurance. We should allow people to purchase their health insurance with pre-tax dollars, like we already do with employer-sponsored insurance. And finally, it is long past due for us to enact meaningful medical liability insurance reform. Staggering malpractice insurance premiums coupled with unreasonable punitive awards and the increasing practice of defensive medicine all contribute greatly to the overall costs of health care. While patients should certainly have reasonable legal recourse in legitimate instances of medical malpractice, it's time to end the lawsuit lottery for the trial attorneys.

Americans made it abundantly clear that they reject the government takeover of health care that was introduced in the House earlier this summer. The Baucus plan is just more of the same and should be rejected as soundly as was the House version. The bill is too costly, disadvantages seniors and doesn't include common sense reforms that would bring down the price of insurance. As one who actually listened to my constituents during the August town hall meetings, I know Oklahomans reject the idea of greater government involvement in health care. I agree with their diagnosis.

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