Reprint: Author, John Boehner
Publication: The Cincinnati Enquirer
Republicans are offering a step-by-step, common-sense approach to health care reform – an altogether better solution than the 2,032-page government takeover of health care being pushed through Congress by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
We’ve introduced a bill to lower costs, and increased access to high-quality care – a bill the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has confirmed will lower premiums by up to 10 percent, without imposing tax increases on families and small businesses.
As Ohio and other states across the nation continue to struggle with joblessness, rising costs of living and skyrocketing health care costs, our plan offers real relief.
In fact, the House Ways and Means Committee has determined that under the Republican plan, premiums for families will be nearly $5,000 lower than the cheapest plan in the Democrats’ government-run proposal.
Not only does the Republican plan lower health care costs, but it also expands access to quality care at a price our country can afford, and tackles the problems in our health care system that have contributed to the crisis we face today.
Specifically, our bill includes common-sense solutions to:
• Guarantee that all Americans – regardless of pre-existing conditions and past illnesses – have access to the care they need at affordable prices by creating Universal Access Programs that expand and reform high-risk pools and reinsurance programs.
• Encourage competition – which is key to lowering prices and increasing quality of care – by allowing Americans to shop for coverage from coast to coast and permitting Americans living in one state to purchase insurance in another.
• Empower small businesses to pool together and offer health care at lower prices, just as corporations and labor unions do. • Reward innovation by providing incentive payments to states that reduce premiums and the number of uninsured.
• Help end costly junk lawsuits that contribute to higher health care costs by increasing the number of tests and procedures that physicians sometimes order, not because they think it is good medicine, but because they are afraid of being sued.
These are just a few highlights of our bill. To learn more about the responsible, common-sense solutions in the Republican plan and read the entire bill, visit healthcare.gop.gov.
Clearly, our bill offers a stark contrast to Pelosi’s health care plan. Pelosi’s bill represents bureaucracy designed to centralize health care decision-making in Washington at the expense of patients and doctors.
It will create dozens of boards, bureaus and commissions in charge of coming up with new regulations and red tape that will inevitably make health care in this country more expensive.
And despite costing $1.3 trillion, it will push billions more in costs over to already cash-strapped states like Ohio, where our governor is already struggling to fill an estimated $850 million state budget hole.
Enough is enough. Americans are fed up. The trillion-dollar “stimulus” isn’t working. Unemployment is rising. The debt to be paid by our kids and grandkids is exploding.
As members of the House of Representatives prepare to take a vote on a health care bill as early as today, they must make a decision:
They can vote for Pelosi’s bill that will raise premiums, increase taxes and cut Medicare benefits for seniors, or they can support the Republican plan that makes health care more affordable and accessible for our families.
The American people have made it clear where they stand. It is time for members of Congress to show they are listening.
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