Two years ago today, President Obama signed his healthcare plan into law.  The President took to the national stage to do a victory lap, promising that the new law would improve health care, job creation and the economy.

Despite the President’s promises to lead the country with unmatched transparency and accountability, he, alongside Nancy Pelosi and the bi-cameral Democrat majority, hustled this government takeover of our healthcare system behind closed doors with bold partisan fervor.  None of us can forget Mrs. Pelosi telling the American people: “we will just have to pass it for you to know what’s in it.”

On today’s two year-anniversary, we now know what is in it: higher taxes, more entitlement programs, excessive government spending and unconstitutional federal mandates.  No surprise seeing as how this is a crowning achievement for a big government, tax and spend President.

No one can argue that our healthcare system needs reform.  No one in the Republican Party is arguing that people with pre-existing conditions should be denied coverage, or that the millions of uninsured should remain uninsured.  But no amount of presidential oratory or demagoguery can overcome the fact that:

• According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the Democrats’ health care law will now cost $1.8 trillion, twice as much as they said it would when President Obama signed it into law in 2010.

• Health care premiums will continue to go up, not down, despite President Obama’s promise to reduce health care premiums by $2,500.  A Kaiser Family Foundation report found that health care premiums in the workplace increased 9 percent, or over $1,200, for an average American family in the year following enactment of the Democrats’ health care law.  Further, the non-partisan CBO estimates that health insurance premiums for those individuals without employer sponsored insurance will increase by 13 percent compared to if the law hadn’t been enacted.

• Employers are dropping coverage due to the health care law, destroying the ability to “keep the coverage you have and like.”  A report from the McKinsey Group found that more than 50 percent of employers with a high awareness of the law say they will stop offering health coverage.

• CBO found that the health care law may hinder job creation.  Additionally, in a 2011 letter to Congress, 200 economists wrote that the law “contains expensive mandates and penalties that create major barriers to stronger job growth.”

• As a result of the Democrats’ health care law, more than 90 percent of seniors will lose the retiree prescription drug coverage they have and like and see nearly double-digit premium increases.

• Americans of all political stripes believe the requirement to purchase government-mandated health insurance even if they can’t afford it, the centerpiece of the Democrats’ health care law, is unconstitutional.  In a recent Gallup poll, 72 percent of Americans said that this provision is unconstitutional, with over 50 percent of Democrats agreeing.

• 72 percent of Americans expect the Democrats’ health care law won’t make their family’s health care situation better.

• The Administration withheld critical financial information from the public that proved the so-called CLASS Act was fiscally unsustainable, yet they used the phony $80 billion in “savings” to “pay for” part of their health care overhaul.

• The Obama Administration continues to overpromise, overspend and underperform – all at the expense of the taxpayer.  Consider these three examples:
  • The $5 billion high-risk pool program was intended to cover 375,000 people, but has only45,000 enrollees after almost two years of operation.
  • The Obama Administration handed out more than one-half billion dollars in cut-rate loans, primarily to political allies to form insurance cooperatives, many of whom do not appear eligible under the law.
  • The Administration has already nearly exhausted $5 billion in funds for the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program (ERRP), which was supposed to be in place through 2014.  By refusing to pay new claims, this is yet another broken promise in the Democrats’ law.  However, the Obama Administration did not miss the opportunity to reward its politically favored friends – unions and state and local governments – which comprised about half of the entities receiving the federal retiree reinsurance subsidies.

One of the most dangerous and secretive provisions of Obamacare is the creation of the Independent Payment Advisory Board or “IPAB.”  IPAB is a powerful board of unelected bureaucrats whose sole job is to determine how to save money by restricting access to health care for Medicare beneficiaries.  Under Obamacare, IPAB is required to achieve specified savings in years where Medicare spending is deemed “too high.” IPAB is the embodiment of everything we feared most about the back door overhaul of our healthcare system.  IPAB allows for unaccountable Washington bureaucrats to meet behind closed doors to make unilateral decisions that should be made by patients and doctors.

This week the House voted to repeal this dangerous Obamacare provision.  This is a direct threat to our seniors and cannot stand.

The American people want common sense health care reform, not a government takeover that will increase costs and reduce the quality of care. I will continue to fight against this outrageous power grab by the Obama Administration.  Real reform needs to take the power away from the government and put it where it belongs: in the hands of the patients.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 23rd, 2012 at 1:54 pm and is filed under Blog Posts.