Affordable Health Care For America Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Speaker, America's health care system is in need of reform. The families in the congressional district I represent have seen their health premiums consume more and more of their salary. Employers are faced with the difficult decision regarding whether or not they can continue to afford to offer their employees the health coverage they know they need. Many more wish they could offer their employees coverage but the orders just aren't there, not in this economy. Doctors and other health providers have seen their reimbursements decline while their practice costs have risen and their liability insurance premiums have skyrocketed due to those who abuse our lawsuit system. Some doctors have reached the conclusion that they can no longer accept Medicare or Medicaid patients.

I have spent my entire tenure in Congress working to reform our health care system to help these families, employers, and health providers. I have worked to pass association health plans so that small businesses can join together with other small businesses from across the country to grow their purchasing power on behalf their employees. I have also supported allowing Americans to obtain health insurance through other larger purchasing pools such as their church denomination, alumni association or other memberships. The Republican Congress twice passed association health plans only to come up short as a result of Democrat opposition in the Senate.

I have worked to pass health care options that meet the unique needs of families, such as medical savings accounts, health savings accounts, and flexible spending arrangements. These important initiatives allow families to save for future health needs and have been an important tool for small businesses. However, I have also had to defend these successful plans from assault by those who seek sources of revenue to fund tried-and-failed big government programs.

I have worked to pass medical liability reform to reduce the high premiums that are driving doctors and other health providers from practice. Doctors in the district I represent face medical liability premiums three to four times as high as their colleagues just north of the border in Wisconsin as a result of Wisconsin's sensible cap on the third-layer non-economic, punitive awards. The Republican Congress twice passed medical liability reform only to have the reform die in the Senate as a result of Democrat opposition.

I have worked to revise the flawed payment formula for doctors who treat Medicare patients to ensure that our seniors continue to have timely access to the most talented medical professionals in our community. I have worked to make sure that none of our health providers are targeted unfairly by government policies or agencies.

And I have spent over 75 percent of my time trying to improve the economic climate for the manufacturers and other small businesses back home so that they can not only remain competitive world-wide, but also be able to offer competitive health care benefits for their employees.

Today, I support a Republican plan that continues to pursue these important reforms. Rather than punish small businesses with onerous mandates and tax penalties for not offering health coverage, the Republican plan will provide tools for small businesses to pool together, just as larger corporations or labor unions do, to offer health care to their employees at lower prices.

The Republican plan would save $54 billion by helping to restore common sense to the legal system and curb defensive medicine by enacting medical liability reforms modeled after the successful state laws of California and Texas. This will dramatically reduce health costs for doctors and patients and will reduce the need for expensive additional tests or procedures that do nothing to improve health status but simply are ordered because of the threats of lawsuits.

The Republican plan will lower health insurance premiums for all Americans. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that premiums would be reduced by 10 percent for employees who receive their coverage through their small business employer; 8 percent for those who do not have access to employer-provided coverage; and 3 percent for employees who receive their coverage through a larger business. Families will see their premiums $5,000 lower than the cheapest government run health insurance plan offered by the Democrats.

The Republican plan provides options for those with pre-existing conditions or those otherwise unable to afford health insurance through state high risk pool options designed to meet the unique regional needs of local citizens. The Republican plan provides options for young adults to remain on their parents' health plans.

The Republican plan promotes innovation in the areas of coverage, technology, and wellness, and prevents government bureaucrats from coming between a doctor and patient. It preserves existing law preventing federal funding from paying for elective abortions. It doesn't raise taxes; it doesn't cut Medicare benefits; it doesn't force anyone into a new government-run health program; and rather than increasing the debt burden on our children and grandchildren, the CBO estimates that the Republican plan will save $68 billion over the next ten years.

Unfortunately, the bill offered by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) takes a very different approach. The Pelosi bill is a $1.3 trillion dollar federal government takeover of the entire health care sector. It increases taxes by $766 billion, taken from badly needed capital for operations and loans for small businesses and is estimated to kill 5.5 million jobs. It penalizes employers for not offering and employees for not purchasing the health coverage that a new all-powerful Health Choices Commissioner deems acceptable. It increases the cost of health care for patients and other health consumers through a new 2.5 percent tax on medical equipment, such as wheel chairs. The Pelosi plan cuts $500 billion from Medicare, which will hurt 18,425 seniors from the Congressional district I represent. District hospitals will see their Medicare payments cut by $244.7 million and local skilled nursing facilities will lose $113.4 million.

Despite claiming the goal of decreasing health costs, the Democrat bill creates 111 new bureaucracies, commissions, agencies, or offices, necessitating the hiring of thousands of new bureaucrats. These new czars and commissars will micromanage all aspects of Americans' health, including the following from page 1514: ``The Secretary shall establish by regulation standards for determining and disclosing the nutrient content for standard menu items that come in different flavors, varieties, or combinations, but which are listed as a single menu item, such as soft drinks, ice cream, pizza, doughnuts, or children's combination meals, through means determined by the Secretary, including ranges, averages, or other methods.''

This Pelosi bill irresponsibly shifts significant costs to the states by hiking their Medicaid expenses. Most states already face significant existing Medicaid shortfalls as demonstrated by the Medicaid bailout for states contained in the Democrat stimulus bill.

The creation of a new government health insurance exchange through which all insurance must be approved and through which all individual insurance must be sold will jeopardize the insurance choices currently enjoyed by over 85 percent of Americans. The creation of a government run health insurance plan coupled with a heavy-fisted regulatory scheme tipped significantly in its favor will further erode the Americans choice of coverage and eventually result in most Americans being forced into a full-blown government run insurance scheme. Further troubling is the inclusion of comparative effectiveness research panels that are utilized in European single-payer systems to ration health care based on cost factors.

And despite the CBO's estimate on the significant savings that could be achieved, the Democrat bill not only contains no medical liability reform, but it actually incentivizes states to repeal their existing medical liability laws in exchange for money.

In sum, the Pelosi bill will kill jobs, cut Medicare, pile debt on our children, increase health care costs, ration care, and raise taxes. As a result of these and hundreds of other disturbing provisions, I cannot in good conscience vote for the Pelosi government takeover of health care.

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