[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19390]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              HEALTH CARE REFORM THAT PUTS PATIENTS FIRST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, President Obama recently held a televised 
press conference to discuss health care reform. As Republican John 
Boehner noted last week, several of President Obama's points may not 
accurately reflect the health care legislation before the House.
  The President said that the government will stay out of health care 
decisions. But that isn't how the legislation is shaping up. A simple 
amendment to the legislation that would have guaranteed that no 
bureaucrat will make any decisions or interfere with any decision 
between a doctor and a patient was rejected by the Democrats in control 
of the Energy and Commerce Committee. That doesn't bode well for 
government staying out of health care decisions.
  President Obama also said that the plan will not add to the 
government's deficit. Of course we all know that the Congressional 
Budget Office has been throwing water on that idea for weeks. They've 
already estimated that the current plan will add $239 billion to our 
deficit over the next 10 years.
  And that deficit number is based on a provision in the plan that 
starts collecting taxes before the health care component kicks in, 
essentially offsetting a significant deficit with taxes collected 
before the bills start arriving. That means that after 10 years we will 
have a new structural deficit as the costs of this plan far outstrip 
the punitive taxes on small businesses.
  But what really concerns me about this plan is Washington's history 
of underestimating costs of expensive plans like this.
  If you look at this chart, based on research from Congress' Joint 
Economic Committee, you will notice that over the years congressional 
estimates of the cost of health care programs were extremely 
unreliable.
  For instance, when Congress was considering Medicare part A, the 
hospital insurance component, Congress estimated it would cost $9 
billion by 1990. Actual cost in 1990? $67 billion, seven times more 
than Congress estimated.
  And the 1967 estimate for the entire Medicare program in 1990 was $12 
billion. Actual cost? $111 billion, almost 10 times the original 
estimate.
  Later, in 1987, Congress estimated that Medicaid's disproportionate 
share of hospital payments to States would cost less than $1 billion in 
1992. Five years later the results were in: $17 billion, which is an 
incomprehensible 17-fold increase over the estimate just 5 years 
earlier.
  You get the idea. Government programs have a tendency to take on a 
life of their own and cost taxpayers way more than was originally 
estimated or envisioned. While I'm willing to allow for some margin of 
error in estimated costs--they are estimates after all--what concerns 
me is that we are starting out with estimates for huge deficits with 
this health care plan. At the same time, we are paying for it out of 
the pockets of America's job creators, the small businesses. If the 
current proposal becomes law, are we going to be coming back to these 
small business with another tax increase in 5 or 10 years?
  We need health care reform that puts patients first and that won't 
destroy the small businesses that are a pillar of our economy. 
Republicans have a better solution that won't put the government in 
charge of people's health care, that will make sure that we bring down 
the cost of health care for all Americans and ensure affordable access 
for all Americans.
  We should be considering the Republican plan and not this job-
destroying Democrat plan.

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