Brian Prows

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Health Care Benefits for Congress?

To the Congress of the United States regarding your health care benefits:

Over the weekend with the Senate’s narrow but passing vote to “debate” health care legislation, it’s become crystal clear that some members of Congress don’t care about the health care crisis.

With a few exceptions, the Republican leadership is unwilling to debate the legislation passed by the House. Worse yet, you have no alternative proposals to reduce the high costs of medical care or save the 38 million Americans who lack health insurance from financial ruin. You’re ignoring your responsibilities as representatives of the people in the United States.

Since you are unwilling to accept the responsibilities for which you were elected, I have a proposal to force the debate. As of January 1, 2010 if you haven’t passed legislation to help remedy the health care needs of Americans, you lose your health care coverage.

As members of Congress, you have one of the best health care plans in the country with 75% of your premiums paid for by taxpayers. Your health coverage includes a variety of plans covering medical, dental, vision, flexible spending accounts and dependent care.

Clearly, if you oppose health care reform or are unwilling to debate proposed legislation, you must believe that medical care for the American public is not a debatable issue. Guess what, you’re wrong.

To force you to debate and remedy the health care issue, let’s push the envelope. If you’are unwilling to debate and pass legislation by the first of the year, you enter the world of the medically uninsured.

Become ill and need a doctor? You pay the entire bill. End up in the hospital for an operation?  You pay the $30,000 charge out of your own pockets. Need a pair of glasses or a tooth filled? The bill is yours.

Why? Because you don’t deserve health care benefits. You haven’t earned it by showing social responsibility. You’ve broken your promise to your constituents and the American people to resolve an ongoing nightmare faced by every individual and family in this country.

And I’m not only referring to those without health insurance coverage. I’m talking about those who work, pay high health care premiums, co-pays and deductibles. I’m speaking of taxpayers who pay your salaries and health care benefits.

Your non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, which provides you with best estimates on legislative costs, now estimates that H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act,  would reduce the Federal deficit by $138 billion dollars a year.

Here is the first page of the the CBO’s letter to Congress:

“The Congressional Budget Office has revised its estimate of the net budgetary impact— transmitted on November 6, 2009—of H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act. In that November 6 letter, CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimated that changes in direct spending and revenues from enacting H.R. 3962 would yield a net reduction in federal budget deficits of $109 billion over the 2010-2019 period. CBO and JCT now estimate that the legislation would yield a net reduction in deficits of $138 billion over the 10-year period, correcting a mistake that CBO made in its earlier assessment of the impact of section 2581 of the legislation, which would establish the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) program.”

Ignoring the CBO analysis and failing to act responsibly is a dereliction of your duties as elected representatives.

Act now or face the consequences.

High Health Care Costs Due to Lack of Competition

Unlike any other industry in the United States, the health care system is destroying our economy due to lack of competition.

Despite all the arguments from health care experts, the “industry,” a confluence of insurance companies, providers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, medical technology companies and lobbyists, is responsible for high health care costs. Breaking up the health care monopoly is a necessary step to halt price increases.
Health insurance conglomerates, by far, are the biggest culprits. They control the premiums charged to businesses and their employees (the majority of the insured). They decide how physicians, hospitals and other providers are reimbursed. Most important, their relationship with drug manufacturers, who produce brand or generic medicines, is the single most important contributor to health care price escalation.

The largest five pharmaceutical manufacturers gobble up 80% or more of drug dollars, spend millions on lobbying and attempt to drive smaller, generic drug companies out of business through years of litigation.

Can you imagine another industry in our “free economy” that operates this way? Would the Department of Justice and FTC allow computer manufacturers, large retail chains, oil companies or any other industry in the United States to set prices by controlling the distribution chain?  Clearly, no.

Current proposed legislation in Congress, stymied by opposition to a “national health plan,”will not by itself reduce what the average American pays for health care. We’ll only resolve our health care cost dilemma by breaking up health care conglomerates that control health care delivery and fostering competition in the market.