[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 150 (Wednesday, November 17, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H7528]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH CARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Next week will mark the 8-month 
anniversary of the new health care law. When we started this debate 
almost 2 years ago, I relied on my longtime experience in the medical 
field to come up with four principles that I strongly believe should be 
in any health care reform. The first was that health care reform should 
lower costs. That has yet to happen under this law. Instead, the 
Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services projected that 
overall national health spending would increase an average of 6.3 
percent a year over the next decade under the new law. In addition, the 
law imposes more than half a trillion dollars in tax increases. It 
imposes more than $210 billion in new payroll taxes that could hit 
small business owners.
  The Medicare actuary has reported that health care costs would 
actually increase over the next decade by a total of $310.8 billion. 
The Congressional Budget Office, or the CBO, wrote that most of the 
major saving proposals in the health care law are ``widely expected'' 
to be scaled back or would be difficult to sustain for a long period. 
That means higher deficits.
  The second principal for health care reform is that it should 
increase access to care. That has yet to happen under the new law. 
Instead, major health insurance companies in California and other 
States simply have decided to stop selling policies for children rather 
than complying with the new Federal law that bars them from rejecting 
youngsters with preexisting conditions. While these insurance companies 
are not distinguishing themselves, the reality is that they will always 
look out for their bottom line.
  The Medicare actuary found that provisions in the law will cause as 
many as 40 percent of Medicare providers to become unprofitable over 
time, thus ``providers would have to withdraw from providing services 
to Medicare beneficiaries.'' This will mean problems with access to 
care. An example is, in Texas, over the last 2 years, more than 300 
primary care physicians have stopped seeing seniors.

                              {time}  1950

  My third principle is that we should preserve the innovations and 
improvements that have allowed this country to pioneer new treatments, 
medications, and equipment. Yet, under this law, there will be $107 
billion in taxes on drug and device manufacturers and insurers. That is 
more money for taxes and less money for innovation.
  The bill requires small businesses to file 1099 forms to any vendor 
with which they spend more than $600 in a given year. That will affect 
40 million businesses that will be involved in increased paperwork at a 
huge cost, detracting from their ability to invest in research and 
development.
  Finally, I believe that any reform of our health care system should 
preserve the decisionmaking process between the patient and the 
patient's physician, not the government, not a bureaucrat, and 
certainly not anyone from a health insurance company, but the new 
health care law does just the opposite.
  In one estimate, the law creates 159 various bureaucracies and 
commissions, Mr. Speaker. In fact, the Congressional Research Service 
essentially threw its hands up in the air and concluded ``the precise 
number of entities that will be created is currently unknowable.'' The 
administration has released 4,103 pages of regulations and is still 
going strong. Soon the government will be in control of every aspect of 
health care, but I assume that was the ultimate goal.
  This 2,700-page law is, as the CRS says, ``currently unknowable.'' 
Our Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, had it right when she said the House would 
``have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it.'' Yet what 
we do know about it violates all four of the principles on which any 
health care reform should be based.
  I supported the Republican alternative 6 months ago, H.R. 3400, the 
Empowering Patients First Act. It includes my principles and it 
deserves support.

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