U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC4) said Sunday that there's no mistake by one Congress that can't be corrected by another and that the health care bill just passed can be repealed next year.
"We haven't won on the third Sunday in March, but we're going to win on the second Tuesday in November," Inglis said. "We can make this a temporary departure from constitutional restraint and a temporary setback for private medicine."
The Democrat's health care bill passed the House Sunday night on a vote of 219 to 212 with all 178 Republicans and 34 Democrats voting "no."
Inglis, who earlier in the week went to the House Floor to deliver over 3,000 letters from constituents in the Fourth District opposed to the "cram down" of the bill, argued that the bill doesn't have the consent of the governed.
"Governments draw their legitimacy from the consent of the governed," Inglis said. "Given the cram down procedures used in the bill, it's obvious that a majority of American's don't support it.
"The American people need to continue speaking out and making themselves heard, so that we can repeal this bill as soon as a new majority is elected," Inglis said.
Among many others, here are flaws in the bill cited by the Congressional Budget Office and other nonpartisan sources:
1. Spends too much. Understates the actual cost -- estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to be $1.2 trillion from 2011 to 2021 or $2 trillion from the time all measures are implemented from 2014 to 2023.
2. Fails to protect life. Allows federal funds to be paid to insurance plans that cover abortion, overturning a long-time precedent.
3. Taxes too much. Raises $60 billion in taxes before any major benefits start.
4. Moves 16 million people into Medicaid--an already underfunded program that shifts costs to other payers.
5. Leaves about 23 million people uninsured, according to the CBO.
6. Allows health insurance premiums to rise by 10 to 13 percent in the individual market, according to the CBO.
7. Allows the percentage of GDP spent on health care to rise from 17 % to 21 % in 2019, according to the Medicare Chief Actuary.
8. Charges employers a penalty of $2,000 per full and part-time worker if any of their employees obtain health coverage through the health insurance exchanges.
9. Creates a new entitlement - The CLASS Act, a new long-term care (nursing home) insurance program, which all Americans would be automatically enrolled in, or choose to opt-out of. Individuals must pay premiums for at least 5 years before receiving benefits, which would amount to $50 a day for long-term care. Funds generated by the program, are not required to be saved for use in the program. It will produce $70 billion in revenue during the first 10 years of the bill, but the revenue is used to pay for other costs.
10. Eliminates the "donut hole" in Medicare Part D coverage. But the cost is not included in the estimate because it takes effect in 2020, and the cost projections only go to 2019.
11. Contains over $520 billion in Medicare cuts that the Health and Human Services Actuary says are unlikely to be made.
12. Double counts the $520 billion in Medicare savings by spending the amount to cover new entitlements.
13. Authorizes grants and programs with no funding levels specified, so CBO has not scored those programs.
14. Excludes the "doc fix"-- the cost of fixing Medicare payments to doctors, estimated at $371 billion.
15. Retains special treatment for Louisiana Medicaid payments, Medicare patients in Libby, Montana and $100 million for a hospital in Connecticut.