Rep. Pitts: Another Government Takeover

Another Government Takeover

By Congressman Joe Pitts

Everywhere I go, people tell me they’re worried about the direction our country is headed. So far in this Congress, all we’ve seen are bailouts and government takeovers.

We are taking over or nationalizing huge sections of our economy. We have nationalized the banking industry and the financial sector. We have nationalized the home mortgage industry. We have taken over the auto companies. We are well on our way to nationalizing the energy sector with a deeply flawed cap and trade plan.

Now President Obama and Democrat leaders in Congress want to nationalize the health care sector by putting government bureaucrats and politicians in charge of health decisions best left up to you and your doctor.

These bailouts and government takeovers will not lead our nation back to prosperity. Indeed, they will mean just the opposite—fewer jobs, massive government spending, and debt piled on our kids and grandkids.

We need healthcare reform in the United States, but we need the right kind of reform. We do not need the government to take over yet one more industry, especially one as fundamental to your quality of life as healthcare.

During the worst recession in a generation my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are proposing a government takeover of health care that will lead to fewer jobs, higher taxes, and less health coverage.

Since the recession began, six million jobs have been lost. Yet the plan being put forward by Democrats in the House includes hundreds of billions of dollars in new tax hikes on small businesses. Historically, small businesses are the engine of job creation. Killing them with a massive new tax will hurt all of us. The plan in the House calls for up to $800 billion in new tax hikes.

According to economic modeling by the president's own chief economic advisor, the business tax hikes alone would destroy up to 4.7 million jobs.

The President has claimed the Democrats’ healthcare reform proposals will reduce costs—in fact, it is a key centerpiece of his rhetoric on the issue. Despite these claims the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has directly refuted this notion. CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf told Congress that the Democrats' proposed reform will not reduce costs and will instead increase future federal spending on health care.

Congress isn’t even attempting to fix the already unsustainable government spending on healthcare before creating a massive new entitlement. The Medicare Trustees have told Congress the government-run health plan for seniors will go insolvent by 2017 without changes.

Yet, even with the massive increases in borrowing and spending, the plan will not cover everyone and will force some people off their current plans, even if they like their current coverage.

An independent analysis by the non-partisan Lewin Group found that 114 million Americans would lose their current health insurance. This is because businesses will pull their employee health benefits once a public option becomes available. Again, in spite of President Obama’s promise to the American people that if you like your current coverage, you can keep it.

The American people want real solutions to get our economy back on track, not another excuse to raise taxes on small businesses and working families. Too often today, insurance companies make healthcare decisions best left to doctors and patients. This is wrong, and the only thing worse would be putting Washington bureaucrats between patients and the care they need, which is what this plan would do.

I want to make healthcare coverage portable, so that you can take it from one job to another. Better yet, we should end the discriminatory tax treatment that provides a tax benefit to companies for providing healthcare, but not individuals for buying their own. I think we ought to allow individuals to band together to pool risk, which will reduce costs. Individuals ought to be able to buy insurance across state lines if they find a plan that works for them. We should be promoting healthcare IT, which has the potential to cut down on errors and increase the potential of preventative care. We should pass medical malpractice reform to reduce costs from lawsuits and reduce the spending from doctors having to practice defensive medicine.

I believe we can reform healthcare in a way that expands access to affordable care and gives families the freedom to choose the health care that fits their needs - without imposing a job-killing tax hike on small businesses and working families.

Rep. Joe Pitts is a Republican who represents Pennsylvania's 16th Congressional District in parts of Chester, Berks and Lancaster counties.