Healthcare: Everyone Gets a Deal and Taxpayers Get the Tab
No one questions that the nation’s healthcare system is troubled and needs to be fixed. Typically, Congress would propose legislation to fix the heart of the problem and then cut whatever side deals are needed to pass the legislation.
The Obama administration and congressional majority campaigned on a theme of changing the way Washington worked. Most voters assumed that meant negotiations on major legislation would be open and transparent. Unfortunately, there is less transparency than ever as final House and Senate healthcare bills are being crafted behind closed doors.
However, there is real change in the legislative process; but it is just not what anyone thought it would be. Congress and the White House are building major legislation backwards. They are beginning the process by cutting all of the deals with the interest groups first. Then if there is any room left in the legislation for healthcare reform, that will be added last.
Who got deals?
The pharmaceutical companies got one deal that would save them over $100 billion over what was expected to be cut. The hospital associations got another deal to limit their increase in costs. The trial lawyers were promised that there would be no medical malpractice reform. The doctors were promised that the steep cuts in their reimbursement payments would be eliminated. Nurses received a similar deal. Insurance firms received their deal to require that everyone must buy insurance. Small businesses got their deal that allows them to drop insurance coverage in exchange for a small fee. And the unions got their deal to exempt the gold-plated health insurance packages that helped to bankrupt the American auto industry.
Under a proposal to cover more uninsured people by expanding the Medicaid program, states would have had to increase spending to pay for it. However, individual politicians negotiated special deals for their states to eliminate the state matching requirement for the first few years of the program.
Who didn’t get a deal?
The taxpayers have been left out in the cold.
What’s worse is that there is still no viable healthcare proposal from the congressional majority or the White House that meets the basic requirements they sold to the voters. They promised to make coverage available to the uninsured; cover pre-existing conditions; make coverage portable so workers can keep the insurance they like as they move from job to job; allow patients to see the doctor they choose; control spiraling costs of the government’s existing healthcare programs; and not increase the budget deficit in a manner that would bankrupt future generations.
Instead, under the existing proposals, healthcare spending will continue to accelerate, consume a greater portion of workers’ dollars, and reduce the choices individual taxpayers will have available to them for doctors and benefit packages.
By building this legislation backwards in cutting deals with the special interest groups first, there is no room left in the bill to address the real health concerns of people without piling on more debt that will jeopardize the nation’s financial security.
— Roger Morse
