Press Releases
After Six Months, Health Care Reform Undermines Stated Goals
Washington,
September 23, 2010
Tags:
Health Care Reform
As health care reform reaches its 6 month anniversary, many American families and small businesses remain skeptical of the new law, because it is driving costs higher, will force more than half of all Americans to lose their current health plan, and it is hampering economic recovery and job creation.
“Before passage of this law, Americans were told they could keep their health care plans if they liked them,” said Congressman Bill Posey. “Now even the Administration admits that half of all Americans will lose their current health care plans.” According to the Administration’s regulations for implementing the new health care reform law, (LINK) 51% of all Americans will lose their current health care plans over the next three years. Furthermore, 66% of all employees working for small businesses will lose their current health care plans under the regulations to establish how existing plans will meet the new mandates of the health care reform law. Small businesses, which are responsible for the creation of 65% of new jobs, will face a half a trillion dollars in job-killing tax increases under Obamacare. Furthermore, there is an additional $210 billion in new payroll taxes that would disproportionately affect small business owners and twenty new insurance mandates which will drive up the cost of medical care for employees of small businesses. Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Medicare Actuary have determined that the savings proposals in the law are expected to be scaled back as regulations are written and would be difficult to sustain for an extended period of time. Additionally, premiums for individual market insurance will rise by an average of $2,100 per family versus the promised $2,500 reduction – the effects of which are already being felt. Already, some states are seeing dramatic premium hikes as a direct result of the new law. Under this new law, Americans are losing discretion over the costs and benefits in their health care plans and these are increasingly driven by federal bureaucrats. Other concerns with the new health care law are that it allows taxpayer subsidies to flow to health plans that that fund elective abortions, individuals are not required to verify their identity which would allow undocumented immigrants and other ineligible individuals to obtain taxpayer subsidized benefits. In total, the law creates 159 bureaucracies and the CRS suggested there could be more as a more precise estimate is currently unknowable with 4,103 pages of regulations to date to implement 2,700 pages of law. |