REP. CALVERT “FREEDOM AND AMERICAN INGENUITY ARE UNDER THE KNIFE”
Washington,
Thursday, October 29, 2009 -
Today Rep. Calvert (R-CA) issued the following statement in response to Speaker Pelosi’s health care plan:
“Today Speaker Pelosi introduced legislation that will fundamentally alter how Americans manage their personal health care choices. The Pelosi Health Care Plan spent American liberties to purchase House Democratic votes in order to secure a political victory. The resulting legislation has put freedom and American ingenuity under the knife. For the sake of the country, we must kill this bill.
“While Pelosi bought votes behind closed doors, Republicans stood ready with an alternative approach that would fix the problems in our system and, most importantly, not put health care choices in the hands of Washington bureaucrats. Congress should focus on what is driving up the costs of health care and how it can insure people who want and need insurance but have been denied coverage, rather than force through a public option that will crowd out private insurance and create a government-run system. Congress should focus on increasing the accessibility, affordability and portability of private health insurance and enact common sense and cost saving reforms such as national medical liability reform, not force a new system upon Americans that we, as a country, cannot afford.”
Three alarming outcomes of the Pelosi Health Care Plan:
RAISES TAXES: The Pelosi bill breaks a promise made by President Obama, imposing a range of tax increases on families with income below $250,000. Tax increases on middle class families include: an individual mandate tax of up to 2.5 percent of income for taxpayers earning as little as $9,350; a repeal of tax incentives for Americans to purchase many popular medicines with funds from an HSA (health savings account); new limits on FSAs (flexible spending accounts) destroying tax incentives for Americans to plan ahead for their medical expenses; a wheel chair, and other medical device, tax that the independent Congressional Budget Office agrees will be passed on to consumers; and a new tax on all insurance policies.
MASSIVE CUTS TO MEDICARE ADVANTAGE: Under the Pelosi health care plan, $170 billion would be cut from the highly successful Medicare Advantage Program, which covers almost 50% of the Medicare beneficiaries in the 44th Congressional District. These cuts undermine a program that gives seniors the choice to enroll in a private option that provides the same benefits as traditional Medicare, prescription drug and other additional health benefits, usually with lower copayments. These cuts will result in reduced benefits to Medicare Advantage beneficiaries or in fixed income seniors having to pay higher premiums and copayments for the same level of service. The Pelosi bill also gives the Secretary of Health and Human Services unchecked authority to reject, any Medicare Advantage or Part D provider’s offer to provide coverage, giving another bureaucrat the unlimited authority to force 10 million beneficiaries off of Medicare Advantage and onto government-run Medicare.
REWARDS TRIAL LAWYERS: The Pelosi plan bribes states to repeal effective liability reforms that cap fees for trial lawyers and limit punitive damages in malpractice lawsuits. California, which enacted these common sense reforms to lower medical liability costs for their residents, will lose out on federal funds for its health care systems if it does not repeal its reforms. This provision would force California to choose whether to put money into the hands of trial lawyers and repeal reforms or sacrifice needed health care dollars.
Text of the health care bills can be found here:
H.R. 3962 - Affordable Health Care for America Act as Introduced: http://docs.house.gov/rules/health/111_ahcaa.pdf, and
H.R. 3961 - Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act of 2009: http://docs.house.gov/rules/health/111_sgr1.pdf
###
