This country deserves a respectful, honest debate about health care. And the hundreds of townhalls that members of Congress will host across the country this August are just the place for that conversation to happen. Here are just five questions Americans should press their elected leaders on in the coming month:
Can you promise me that I will not lose my plan and doctor? President Obama says it is “not legitimate” to claim the “public option is somehow a Trojan horse for a single-payer system.” But Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.; Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.; and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman have all admitted that the public option will inevitably lead to government-run health care. The independent and nonpartisan Lewin Group estimates that about 83.4 million people would lose their private insurance if Obamacare became law.
Can you promise that you and your family will enroll in the public plan? Members of Congress and their families receive health care through the popular, and completely public option-free, Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, which allows members of Congress to choose between 283 private health insurance plans. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., proposed an amendment that would require all members of Congress and their staffs to enroll in the newly created public health insurance plan. His amendment passed by just one vote in the Senate Health, Education and Labor Committee. In the House, Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., offered a similar amendment, and all 21 Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee voted it down. If the public plan is so great, then members of Congress should be willing to forfeit their private coverage and join the millions of Americans who would be forced into the public plan.
Can you promise that Obamacare will not lead to higher deficits in the long term?Obama said he would not support health care legislation that would add to the national deficit. But Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf has stated that the House health care legislation would “generate substantial increases in federal budget deficits during the decade beyond the current 10-year budget window.” To help Obama keep his promise, Rep. Patrick Tiberi, R-Ohio, offered an amendment that would require the secretary of Health and Human Services to submit an annual report to the president and Congress, comparing the expected revenue and spending under the bill’s provisions for the upcoming 10-year period. In the event that projected spending under the bill outpaced revenue, the secretary would have to reduce spending so that it would not exceed revenue. Democrats defeated Tiberi’s amendment.
Can you promise that government bureaucrats will not ration health care for patients on the public plan? Obama promised July 22 that health care reform would keep the government out of health care decisions, but the House and Senate bills call for an increased role of Comparative Effectiveness Research. More information on health care effectiveness is good so long as doctors and patients are the ones empowered to use that information. Conservatives in the House and Senate offered amendments prohibiting the use of CER by government to mandate, deny or ration care. These anti-rationing amendments were defeated in the House and Senate.
Can you promise me that my tax dollars will not fund abortions? The House bill, as drafted, allows the HHS secretary to outline the minimum benefits that must be included in any health plan. There is no specific provision in the bill that would require insurance coverage of abortion. However, because the decisions over benefits are left to the HHS secretary, with recommendations from a newly created Health Care Benefits Advisory Committee, there is nothing to prevent the current or future secretary from including abortion coverage in Americans’ health insurance. Conservatives in the House and Senate offered amendments that would prohibit the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions. The taxpayer-funded abortion bans were defeated in the House and Senate.
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