By Congressman Joe Pitts
An old favorite trick of dishonest politicians is to set up and destroy straw men. Instead of debating the actual arguments of your opponent, you put words into their mouth and then debate that. For years now, Democrats have portrayed the debate over health reform as a choice between empowering the government or doing nothing.
The fact is that Republicans have long fought for health care reform and succeeded many times in the last decade. We successfully created Health Savings Accounts, Medicare Advantage, and tax deductions to make insurance more affordable. Because of a Democrat filibuster in the Senate, we narrowly lost opportunities to pass Association Health Plans and medical malpractice reform.
Even as House Democrats were passing an early version of what became Obamacare, Republicans presented an alternative that covered people with pre-existing conditions and dependents under the age of 26 without the radical expansion of government bureaucracy.
Every time I speak with constituents about my opposition to Obamacare, I try to talk about what I stand for. Recently, my colleague, Congressman Phil Roe, M.D. (R-TN), introduced a bill that contains many of these good ideas, the American Health Care Reform Act.
The text of Obamacare at the time of its passage ran to more than 2,700 pages. Few legislators were able to read the entire bill and even fewer understood it. Even Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House at that time, said we had to pass the bill to find out what was in it. This new bill is only 200 pages long.
Just as worrisome as Obamacare’s length is the latitude it granted cabinet secretaries to write regulations. The law has more than 700 instances where the secretary “shall” do something. This essentially means that the secretary gets to fill in the details with a regulation. So far, there are tens of thousands of pages of Obamacare regulations with many more to come.
Regulations are always necessary to carry out legislation, but Congress should not be in the business of outsourcing our work to bureaucrats. In contrast to Obamacare, the American Health Care Reform Act has only 12 times where the secretary “shall” take an action.
The bill isn’t about government taking over health care, it’s about empowering Americans to manage their own health care. One of the best ways to do this is by stopping discrimination in our tax code. Right now, businesses get a deduction for providing insurance for their employees. Individuals don’t get that same benefit, making care much more expensive.
The tax benefit in the American Health Care Act is portable, it provides relief to the working poor, and it give families flexibility to purchase the insurance that fits their needs. It also expands Health Savings Accounts and encourages company wellness programs.
The legislation makes sure that Americans with pre-existing conditions have access to care through state high risk pools. It also offers protections for individuals with pre-existing conditions to change insurance plans without losing coverage.
Right now, many Americans have access to only a handful of health insurance plans. Many of the new Obamacare exchanges will have very limited options. Without more choice, there can never be healthy competition. The bill encourages more options for consumers and allows small businesses to pool together to get better rates.
Importantly, the legislation reforms medical liability law. Right now, many doctors practice defensive medicine, ordering extra tests and procedures, in order to avoid lawsuits. According to the American Medical Association, this costs our heath system between $76 billion to $126 billion each year.
Finally, this bill puts into law the Hyde Amendment prohibiting the federal government from paying for or subsidizing coverage for abortion. Even many Americans who support abortion rights agree that the government should not be paying for the procedure.
I support efforts to repeal, defund, and rollback Obamacare, but we can’t stop there. The status quo is ever-increasing insurance premiums and people left without coverage. We should not stand for that.
Every American should have access to affordable health care. Expanding government bureaucracy, taxes, and regulations doesn’t accomplish that goal. There is a better way.
Congressman Joe Pitts is a Republican who represents Pennsylvania's 16th District in parts of Berks, Chester and Lancaster counties.
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