In a speech given from the United States Senate floor on Monday, Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) firmly asserted that the health care reform bills especially the one passed by the HELP committee at present are nothing more than a government take over of health care.
His first piece of evidence to support this conclusion is that the bill creates a total of 87 new government programs. The legislation also creates a substantial amount of new regulatory power that is granted to the Secretary of HHS. In fact, Mr. Grassley pointed out that the word “Secretary” appears 982 times.
Such deference given to an unelected, unaccountable government official, Mr. Grassley asserts, makes it clear that the White House, HELP Committee, and Democratic leadership would rather push something through quickly rather than slowly looking at all ideas and actually reading the 2000 pages of the bill.
Another point Mr. Grassley talked about was how the bill will allow the Secretary the power to regulate insurance ratings. In doing so, the legislation would set a 2-to-1 age rating band, in which premiums for the oldest person could be no more than twice the cost of the premiums for the youngest person.
The problem with such a provision is that someone has to pay for the substantially reduced premiums for the older people. As Mr. Grassley noted, younger people will have to pay higher premiums in the form of a new hidden tax that will increase premiums for young healthy people by at least 50 percent. The provision would also take away the regulatory power of state legislatures and insurance commissioners to draw the rating areas, and give it to unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.
While the legislation seeks to subsidize such premiums through taxpayer’s dollars, the Secretary is given the ability to determine what “the essential health care benefits are eligible for credits.”
In addition, Mr. Grassley acknowledged that if individuals and families want to purchase coverage through the new exchange established by this bill, the Secretary of HHS will be deciding what health plan and what doctor is best for you and your family.
Senator Grassley also explained that the Secretary would have control over the training and what curriculum would be taught in our medical schools, something he felt there was no way of knowing would actually make people healthier since the decisions again would be left to unelected government bureaucrats.
His speech then went on to site recent media coverage of the recently released House Bill, which the Wall Street Journal called “The Worst Bill Ever,” because it included new spending and taxes, pricier insurance, rationed care, and dishonest accounting. Mr. Grassley even noted how the Congressional Budget Office said that the premiums in the government-run plan from the House bill would be more expensive than premiums in the private market.
He also addressed how the bill will create the biggest expansion of Medicaid in its history, a program that is already financially unsustainable in its current form today. Such a decision Mr. Grassley noted, would leave states liable for a significant share of that new spending—a share that states cannot afford. In order to pay for such spending, states would be forced to raise taxes, just another hidden tax.
Mr. Grassley indicated further that people who want to buy health insurance will be forced to go to another unelected federal bureaucrat called the “Health Choices Commissioner.” The problem with such a process is that if an individual or family does not like such a plan or cannot afford it, they will be hit with a new individual mandate tax penalty enforced by the Internal Revenue Service.
The bill also does change what kind of insurance people already have because it cuts more than $150 billion from Medicare Advantage plans, endangering the existing coverage for millions of seniors. Mr. Grassley even pointed out that CBO said the bill will also raise premiums on Medicare Part D as well.
Senator Grassley also stated that what should scare people about the House bill is that the legislation removed previous language that would prohibit the rationing of health care.
As a result from all these disturbing facts, Mr. Grassley called for more time to consider new ideas to handle health care reform