U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell today unveiled a web video on the one-year anniversary of the health spending law and its impact on all Americans.
GUEST COMMENTARY: One year of broken promises on Obamacare
| Posted: Wednesday, March 23, 2011 12:00 am |
A year ago today, despite the objections of millions of Americans, President Barack Obama signed his health care reform package into law.
In a White House signing ceremony, the president said the law would "lower costs for families and for businesses and for the federal government, reducing our deficit by over $1 trillion in the next two decades. It is paid for; it is fiscally responsible. And it will help lift a decades-long drag on our economy."
A year later, Hoosiers still are waiting to see these promises become a reality.
The president's own chief actuary estimated that the law will increase national health care costs by $311 billion in the first 10 years alone. Hoosier families will be hit with escalating costs as well. Nonpartisan experts from the Congressional Budget Office reported health insurance premiums will increase by an average of $2,100 per family policy as a result of Obamacare.
Additionally, if the law is left in place, 50,000 Hoosiers may be dropped from the Healthy Indiana Plan, a successful state-based, patient-centered health care plan for low-income people.
The health care law also forces states to expand Medicaid, adding more pressure to deeply strained budgets. Indiana will have to absorb an estimated $3.6 billion in new costs over the next decade if the 1.5 million eligible Hoosiers enroll in Medicaid.
To help pay for the $2.6 trillion health care law, Democrats included a 2.3 percent sales tax on medical devices, which negatively would affect job creators and a wide range of Hoosier companies, from Cook Medical in Bloomington to Biomet and Zimmer in Warsaw.
Meanwhile, recent polls show a significant majority of Americans want the health care law to be repealed, and they want Congress to start over on a new plan. In the midterm election last fall, Hoosiers and people across the country sent Washington the message that Obamacare's one-size-fits-all system is not the answer to improving health care.
Additionally, more than half the states, including Indiana, have joined in lawsuits challenging provisions and the constitutionality of the law. Even the White House recognizes flaws with its law. The administration has issued more than 1,000 waivers exempting organizations from the mandates included in Obamacare. According to the administration's own estimates, 51 percent of American workers will lose their current health coverage by 2013 without reforms to the law.
By all objective criteria, Obamacare has failed. It has failed to drive down costs, failed to improve access and failed to ease the burden on states and the economy. Obamacare also failed to even include tort reform necessary to reduce lawsuit abuse, a main driver of high costs.
Earlier this year, I voted to repeal Obamacare and will continue to support efforts to defund and delay implementation of the law. Congress needs to overturn Obamacare and start over with real solutions that have the approval of the American people. We need to ensure that our health care system preserves personal freedoms and puts individuals in control of their own health care decisions.
U.S. Sen. Dan Coats, a Republican, represents Indiana. The opinion expressed in this column is the writer's and not necessarily that of The Times.
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