Received email October 30, 2009 from Mark Kirk, Congressman, 10th District, Illinois

What's Inside the Pelosi Health Care Bill?

Dear Friend:

Yesterday, Speaker Pelosi introduced her health care bill (H.R. 3962) and I introduced a Republican alternative (H.R. 3970). I believe we should pass some key reforms and reject others because they will harm our health care and our economy. Here are the reforms that I am backing:

1.The Medical Rights Act: Prevent the government from interfering with the decisions that you and your doctor have made about you and your family’s care.

2.Eliminating waste, fraud and abuse: Save billions in improper fraudulent payments.

3.Reducing Expensive Defensive Medicine: Lawsuit reform and fully electronic medical records to avoid duplicate tests and procedures.

4.Lowering Insurance Costs: Give Americans the right to buy insurance from any state in the union; provide tax breaks to individuals buying their own insurance; and innovation programs to eliminate pre-existing conditions.

These reforms were all included in the bill I just introduced, H.R. 3970, the Medical Rights and Reform Act.

Speaker Pelosi introduced her own bill, H.R. 3962, a 1,990-page bill that raises taxes, cuts Medicare and creates a new government health care entitlement that will increase the deficit. Our initial reading of the bill provides some key details. I wanted you to have these details as soon as they were available:

H.R. 3962, the Pelosi Health Care Bill:

Page 94—Section 202(c) prohibits the sale of private individual health insurance policies, beginning in 2013, forcing individuals to purchase coverage through the federal government;

Page 211—Section 321 establishes a new government-run health plan that, according to non-partisan actuaries, would cause as many as 114 million Americans to lose their existing coverage;

Page 225—Section 330 permits—but does not require—Members of Congress to enroll in government-run health care;

Page 255—Section 345 does not include a requirement to verify applicants’ identity, thus encouraging identity fraud for undocumented immigrants and others wishing to receive taxpayer-subsidized health benefits;

Page 297—Section 501 imposes a 2.5 percent tax on all individuals who do not purchase “bureaucrat-approved” health insurance—the tax would apply on individuals with incomes under $250,000, thus breaking a central promise of then-Senator Obama’s presidential campaign;

Page 313—Section 512 imposes an 8 percent “tax on jobs” for firms that cannot afford to purchase “bureaucrat-approved” health coverage; according to an analysis by Harvard Professor Kate Baicker, such a tax would place millions “at substantial risk of unemployment”— with minority workers losing their jobs at twice the rate of their white counterparts;

Page 336—Section 551 imposes additional job-killing taxes, in the form of a half-trillion dollar “surcharge,” more than half of which will hit small businesses; according to a model developed by President Obama’s senior economic advisor, such taxes could cost up to 5.5 million jobs;

Page 520—Section 1161 cuts more than $150 billion from Medicare Advantage plans, potentially jeopardizing millions of seniors’ existing coverage;

Page 733—Section 1401 establishes a new Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research; the bill includes no provisions preventing the government-run health plan from using such research to deny access to life-saving treatments on cost grounds, similar to Britain’s National Health Service, which denies patient treatments costing more than £35,000;

Page 1174— Section 1802(b) includes provisions entitled “TAXES ON CERTAIN INSURANCE POLICIES” to fund comparative effectiveness research, breaking Speaker Pelosi’s promise that “We will not be taxing [health] benefits in any bill that passes the House,” and the President’s promise not to raise taxes on families with incomes under $250,000.

Well, this says it all. I don't think I can improve on it.