House Republicans, flush with their new majority, promise they will vote to repeal the health care law before President Barack Obama makes his State of the Nation address later this month. House Democrats and the administration say they welcome a new debate on the law’s provisions.
Assuming that party discipline holds, a vote to repeal will probably pass and that bill will go to the Senate, where Democrats still hold a six-vote majority. The bill will almost certainly be defeated there; if it were not, the president would veto it. The health care law will remain in place.
The confrontation in the House, however, will give the public a chance to answer questions like these for themselves:
— It is really a good idea to allow insurance companies to deny coverage to persons with pre-existing conditions? Today, a youngster born with a condition that requires medical care isn’t covered by insurance. Under the health care law, he or she would be covered. Which is best?
— Insurance companies today can set a limit on how much medical care an individual can receive in their lifetime. Such limits are illegal under the health care bill. Which seems best?
— The health care law requires insurance companies to cover children to stay on the policy until the age of 26. Repealing the law would eliminate that provision and expose millions of young adults to uninsured medical costs. Good idea?
— Today an insurance company can, and many do, cancel coverage of those who sustain injuries or develop conditions that are expensive to treat or cure. The health care law prohibits such profit-seeking actions. Take your pick.
— Despite the recession, health care costs have continued to rise at twice the rate of inflation. It is preposterous to blame the health care law, which won’t take full effect for three more years, for the continued rise. The Congressional Budget Office calculates that the health care law will reduce deficits by more than $140 billion over 10 years. Repealing the law would take that barrier away from rising health care costs.
— Without a federal health care program more than 50 million Americans were without health insurance. The health care bill will bring most of those under a health care umbrella within a few years. The uninsured often get medical care from hospital emergency rooms, the most expensive provider in the system. A very substantial percentage of emergency room billing is paid for by taxpayers. That ad hoc government health care program is invisible to the public. Repealing the health care law would inevitably increase the very expensive use of the nation’s emergency rooms by the uninsured.
THE UNITED STATES now spends about 17 percent of its gross national product on health care, nearly twice that spent by any other wealthy nation. Many other nations have health care outcomes as good as or better than ours; all of them, repeat, ALL, cover 100 percent of their citizens. The only way health care costs can be reduced in the U.S. is to study the methods used in Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, etc., etc., etc. and create a U.S. model based on those successful ones.
The health care bill passed by the 2010 Congress offers a starting place. It doesn’t need repealing, it needs improving.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
