St. Joseph News-Press - ObamaCare is no Harmless Prank

Op-Ed

By Sam Graves

A couple weeks ago marked the four-year anniversary of President Obama's health care law. With many promises, ObamaCare was rushed through Congress. Since then this burdensome law has been taken apart, delayed and changed piece by piece -- all without the consent of the governed. The president, along with his team of California and East Coast liberals, told Missourians that ObamaCare was what was best for us.

March 31 marked the end of ObamaCare's delayed open enrollment period. While the future of ObamaCare remains uncertain for families and small businesses, what's certain is that those who did not start enrolling before this deadline face a steep penalty.

As time goes on, Missourians are finding out what ObamaCare really means. I have received stories from constituents across the Sixth District of Missouri who say they have lost their health insurance plans directly because of ObamaCare and are being forced into new policies, with higher premiums, greater deductibles and higher out-of-pocket costs. Time and time again, the president made the promise: If you like your plan you can keep your plan, and if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.

In mid-March, government actuaries and health industry officials predicted up to double-digit increases in overall ObamaCare-related insurance costs next year. This will be devastating for small businesses, farmers and the workers who are left to bear these costs. In fact, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services led by the president's own appointees acknowledged in February that new ObamaCare rules likely would drive up the price of insurance for up to 65 percent of small businesses -- meaning millions of employees and their family members.

The president and his administration waited nearly four years to publish these estimates while he asked for our confidence and trust.

ObamaCare has glaring flaws. For instance, without clarification of its employer mandate, the potential disruption to volunteer firefighters and other volunteer emergency responders in rural communities throughout the Sixth District could have been enormous.

Specifically, part of ObamaCare's employer mandate, known as the "Shared Responsibility Provision," requires employers with 50 or more full-time employees to offer health care coverage or pay a fine. This provision includes volunteer firefighters, who are defined as employees by the Internal Revenue Service for federal tax purposes. In Missouri, small rural fire departments clearly cannot afford this; forcing them to comply with this provision would not extend health care to the uninsured. Instead, it would close fire departments and place communities at risk. President Obama clearly did not understand this.

To address this issue, I cosponsored the Protecting Volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act, which recently passed the House. This bill redefines volunteers as non-employees, which would relieve fire departments from the burden of paying for volunteers' health insurance. Importantly, the IRS recently announced that the hours of volunteer firefighters and other emergency responders will not be counted when determining full-time employees.

The situation does not get better for Missouri seniors, who the president also has overlooked. With the program already on a course of insolvency, the health care law reduces payments to Medicare, which actuaries predict will cause one in seven hospitals to completely leave the system.

And what about the "30-Hour Rule" under ObamaCare, which is resulting in fewer jobs, reduced hours and less opportunity for many Americans? The rule redefines what it means to work "full-time." Even Teamsters' labor boss President James Hoffa, an ardent Obama supporter, admitted this rule will "destroy the foundation of the 40-hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class." The other day I joined with my House colleagues in voting to protect the middle class and the traditional 40-hour work week for those who depend on as many hours to receive "full-time" status.

ObamaCare is not a harmless prank, like the pattern of broken promises and mistrusts could lead one to believe. It has gone way too far, and where it goes next is anyone's guess. As wayward Washington bureaucrats employ backdoor tactics and PR teams toil to spin a law that kills jobs, reduces quality and access to care, and increases costs, I continue to advocate repeal and will keep fighting to reduce the harmful impact of this law on Missouri families and businesses.

Rep. Sam Graves, a Republican from Tarkio, has been Northwest Missouri's representative in Congress since 2001.

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