Today in Washington D. C. - Dec 1, 2009 - Senate Bill - Higher Healthcare Costs
House returns at 6:30 PM. Today, at 11:30, the Senate will move to executive session to consider the nomination of Jacqueline Nguyen to be district judge for the Central District of California and at noon, the Senate will vote on the nomination. The Senate resumes consideration of the Reid substitute amendment to H.R. 3590, the vehicle for Democrats’ health care reform bill. Votes on amendments to the bill are possible. Yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) offered the first GOP modification to the bill, a motion to recommit the bill to committee and have it reported back without the half trillion dollars in Medicare cuts it features.
In an important article today, Politico writes, “The White House has started to aggressively push back against a growing narrative that pending health reform legislation doesn’t do enough to control spiraling health costs.” The problem for the White House is that the narrative is correct: multiple studies show that Democrats’ health reform plans will not do what President Obama and others have claimed they will do. Indeed, Politico notes, “One of the most recent and damaging reports came from the administration’s own independent actuary. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reported that the legislation passed by the House would increase health care costs by almost $300 billion over the next 10 years. Outside of the bill’s Medicare cuts — a savings that would be difficult to sustain — the legislation wouldn’t curb increasing costs, the report said.”
“And on the Senate side,” Politico writes, “the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s legislation would increase federal health outlays by $160 billion over the next decade.” According to Politico, “Democrats push back by arguing that the House and Senate bills would cut the deficit. Under the Senate bill, CBO estimates that the deficit would be reduced by $130 billion over the next decade.” However, this is comparing apples and oranges. Democrats have premised their health reform legislation on lowering both health care costs to the federal government and to individual Americans. Yet the CBO has found that Reid’s bill would do just the opposite. In addition to increased government spending, The Washington Post reports, “[b]y 2016, two years after the Senate reforms are to take effect, the CBO projected that premiums for 32 million people in [the individual] market would be driven as much as 30 percent higher . . . .” Democrats have been promoting the analysis of MIT economist John Gruber, who supports their plans for health care reform. But even he told The Washington Post today, “This is not delivering huge premiums savings to the insured.”
So, despite the promises of Democrats that their bill will lower health care costs, it’s clear that it will NOT lower health care cost. As Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell notes that “It’s pretty clear by now that the American people were sold a bill of goods when the administration and its allies here in Congress said their health care bill would lower costs and help the economy, because the plan that has been produced—that is before the Senate—won’t do either.”
Tags: government run, health care, US Congress, US House, US Senate, Washington D.C To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
In an important article today, Politico writes, “The White House has started to aggressively push back against a growing narrative that pending health reform legislation doesn’t do enough to control spiraling health costs.” The problem for the White House is that the narrative is correct: multiple studies show that Democrats’ health reform plans will not do what President Obama and others have claimed they will do. Indeed, Politico notes, “One of the most recent and damaging reports came from the administration’s own independent actuary. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reported that the legislation passed by the House would increase health care costs by almost $300 billion over the next 10 years. Outside of the bill’s Medicare cuts — a savings that would be difficult to sustain — the legislation wouldn’t curb increasing costs, the report said.”
“And on the Senate side,” Politico writes, “the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s legislation would increase federal health outlays by $160 billion over the next decade.” According to Politico, “Democrats push back by arguing that the House and Senate bills would cut the deficit. Under the Senate bill, CBO estimates that the deficit would be reduced by $130 billion over the next decade.” However, this is comparing apples and oranges. Democrats have premised their health reform legislation on lowering both health care costs to the federal government and to individual Americans. Yet the CBO has found that Reid’s bill would do just the opposite. In addition to increased government spending, The Washington Post reports, “[b]y 2016, two years after the Senate reforms are to take effect, the CBO projected that premiums for 32 million people in [the individual] market would be driven as much as 30 percent higher . . . .” Democrats have been promoting the analysis of MIT economist John Gruber, who supports their plans for health care reform. But even he told The Washington Post today, “This is not delivering huge premiums savings to the insured.”
So, despite the promises of Democrats that their bill will lower health care costs, it’s clear that it will NOT lower health care cost. As Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell notes that “It’s pretty clear by now that the American people were sold a bill of goods when the administration and its allies here in Congress said their health care bill would lower costs and help the economy, because the plan that has been produced—that is before the Senate—won’t do either.”
Tags: government run, health care, US Congress, US House, US Senate, Washington D.C To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Posted by Bill Smith at 10:10 AM - Post Link
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