The House passed their version of health care reform – H.R. 3962, the “Affordable Health Care for America Act” – Saturday November 7 by a vote of 220-215. I encourage you to take a moment to thank the 215 Rs and Ds who voted against this bill – particularly the 39 Ds who parted with their caucus.
Any illusions that House passage of this swollen monstrosity (1,990 pages) of a bill will give impetus and direction to the Senate seem greatly misplaced. The House-passed bill appears to have been a one-and-done event, a bridge to nowhere. Our country will be much the better off if the bill stays that way. We will work hard to see that it remains so.
I know my friends who are strong advocates of health reform at any cost will think that I have retreated to knuckle-dragging, anti-reform conservatism, but that’s not the case. Just look at Rep. John Shadegg’s (R-AZ) latest ill-founded attempt to gut ERISA (expose ERISA plans … e.g. employers … to medical malpractice liability for claims determinations) in order to toss everyone into the Hobbesian jungle of the individual market. Hard right can definitely be as loony as or loonier than the far left. We want good reform and can’t afford bad reform from either side of the aisle. Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with you….
H.R. 3962 takes the cake as a paragon of misplaced ambition. As NRF’s Key Vote letter indicates, this bill might be better thought of as the anti-stimulus act. Jobs lost through the punitive employer mandate (8% of payroll) and the income surtax that will disproportionately affect small businesses may never come back. ERISA – the linchpin of multi-state employer plans – is given a five year lease on life … unless states are granted waivers to enact single payer schemes sooner. The public insurance option will shift costs to employer plans and crowd out private plan competitors. The bill’s market reforms will actually increase costs for many, if not most. Medicaid is expanded heedlessly without even a shrug in the direction of the dire finances of just about every state around. There likely are some few positive elements in this bill, but if there are, they are totally swamped by the sea of bad legislation. Fortunately, this bridge doesn’t appear to be going anywhere, much less to the Senate.
Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) seems to be keeping his hole cards well concealed – at least for time being. I’m not betting the ranch on a more reasonable approach from Sen. Reid, but I am more than willing – eagerly seeking, in fact – to be surprised. Building the bridge to a better – and healthier – tomorrow should start small and concentrate on lowering costs. We can make progress on the uninsured but they must take a short-term back seat to lowering costs. Only then can we reach out and cover all of those who lack coverage (but not care) today. That’s a bridge to a healthier and more affordable future that we all could support. Sen. Reid, we’re waiting….
One Comment
Having recently finished the boot “the forgotten man” by Amity Shlaes an current well written acount of the mistakes made in the great depression, I am saddend that a governmnet program the size of the house health care bill, could be considered a benefit to our country. We remained in the depression because the federal government experimented with the economy with big programs, that seem amazingly similar to the house bill’s “solutions” for our current health care system. During the depression business’s didn’t grow and expand because they held back for fear of the uncertainty they had over the laws and programs the federal government kept enacting. Spending a trillion $ is not going to reduce the cost of health care. Reducing the cost should be the main focus.