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Inglis statement on President Obama's health care speech in joint address to Congress
(September 10, 2009)
U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC) reacted to President Obama's joint address to Congress late Wednesday evening.
"The President made a fine speech, but we need to do the math more honestly. He said that his plan won’t add a dime to the deficit. That’s not what the Congressional Budget Office says. CBO says the plan will cost $239 billion over ten years and substantially more thereafter. In saying that he passes the 'not one dime' test, the President is omitting a $245 billion adjustment to Medicare’s physician payments. I agree that the adjustment needs to be made so that doctors will continue taking Medicare patients, but that figure has to be scored as a cost under the plan. Then we could apply the 'not one dime' test, and we’d be getting somewhere.
"The President wants to create a public insurance plan to compete with private insurance plans. That public option will lead to a single-payer system of health care. That’s the wrong prescription for America.
"The President says that his plan is silent on abortion. Why doesn’t he just go ahead and specifically exclude abortion services? That would take the issue off the table.
"The President was right to say that the budget deficit is health care related. He’s right about that, and it’s why we need to do something. But we don’t have to do it in a rush, and it shouldn’t be crammed down on the Democratic side of the aisle. Health care is too important for that.
"I was glad to hear the President mention tort reform. He didn’t exactly embrace the concept, but at least he mentioned it, and for that I’m grateful. Actually, defensive medicine adds significantly to the cost of health care. That’s why tort reform makes sense."
In order for us to stop the current plan, we have to have our own. Here’s an outline of the plan I’m working on:
- Reduce health care costs.
Reform malpractice laws. Bring 50 state competition to insurance markets. Make insurance premiums deductible for the self-employed. Bring consumer-directed solutions like health savings accounts to Medicare and Medicaid.
- End the “cost shift” that drives up health insurance premiums.
Accept the challenge of getting every citizen covered by private insurance, even if it’s just catastrophic coverage. End the free riding. Insist on accountability. End preexisting condition coverage exclusions. Define the whole state of South Carolina as a group for rating purposes.
- Restore the trust of citizens. Preserve choice and increase competition through robust private markets.
The following fact checking analysis was published by the Associated Press
after President Obama's speech on Wednesday, September 10, 2009
(Compiled by the AP):
OBAMA: "I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits either now or in the future. Period."
THE FACTS: Though there's no final plan yet, the White House and congressional Democrats already have shown they're ready to skirt the no-new-deficits pledge. House Democrats offered a bill that the Congressional Budget Office said would add $220 billion to the deficit over 10 years. But Democrats and Obama administration officials claimed the bill actually was deficit-neutral. They said they simply didn't have to count $245 billion of it — the cost of adjusting Medicare reimbursement rates so physicians don't face big annual pay cuts. Their reasoning was that they already had decided to exempt this "doc fix" from congressional rules that require new programs to be paid for. In other words, it doesn't have to be paid for because they decided it doesn't have to be paid for. The administration also said that since Obama already had included the doctor payment in his 10-year budget proposal, it didn't have to be counted again. That aside, the long-term prognosis for costs of the health care legislation has not been good. CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf had this to say in July: "We do not see the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount."
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OBAMA: "Nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have."
THE FACTS: That's correct, as far as it goes. But neither can the plan guarantee that people can keep their current coverage. Employers sponsor coverage for most families, and they'd be free to change their health plans in ways that workers may not like, or drop insurance altogether. The Congressional Budget Office analyzed the health care bill written by House Democrats and said that by 2016 some 3 million people who now have employer-based care would lose it because their employers would decide to stop offering it. In the past Obama repeatedly said, "If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan, period." Now he's stopping short of that unconditional guarantee by saying nothing in the plan "requires" any change.
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OBAMA: "The reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally." One congressman, South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson, shouted "You lie!" from his seat in the House chamber when Obama made this assertion.
THE FACTS: The facts back up Obama. The House version of the health care bill explicitly prohibits spending any federal money to help illegal immigrants get health care coverage. Illegal immigrants could buy private health insurance, as many do now, but wouldn't get tax subsidies to help them. Still, Republicans say there are not sufficient citizenship verification requirements to ensure illegal immigrants are excluded from benefits they are not due.
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OBAMA: "Don't pay attention to those scary stories about how your benefits will be cut. ... That will never happen on my watch. I will protect Medicare."
THE FACTS: Obama and congressional Democrats want to pay for their health care plans in part by reducing Medicare payments to providers by more than $500 billion over 10 years. The cuts would largely hit hospitals and Medicare Advantage, the part of the Medicare program operated through private insurance companies. Although wasteful spending in Medicare is widely acknowledged, many experts believe some seniors almost certainly would see reduced benefits from the cuts. That's particularly true for the 25 percent of Medicare users covered through Medicare Advantage. Supporters contend that providers could absorb the cuts by improving how they operate and wouldn't have to reduce benefits or pass along costs. But there's certainly no guarantee they wouldn't.
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OBAMA: Requiring insurance companies to cover preventive care like mammograms and colonoscopies "makes sense, it saves money, and it saves lives."
THE FACTS: Studies have shown that much preventive care — particularly tests like the ones Obama mentions — actually costs money instead of saving it. That's because detecting acute diseases like breast cancer in their early stages involves testing many people who would never end up developing the disease. The costs of a large number of tests, even if they're relatively cheap, will outweigh the costs of caring for the minority of people who would have ended up getting sick without the testing. The Congressional Budget Office wrote in August: "The evidence suggests that for most preventive services, expanded utilization leads to higher, not lower, medical spending overall." That doesn't mean preventive care doesn't make sense or save lives. It just doesn't save money.
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OBAMA: "If you lose your job or change your job, you will be able to get coverage. If you strike out on your own and start a small business, you will be able to get coverage."
THE FACTS: It's not just a matter of being able to get coverage. Most people would have to get coverage under the law, if his plan is adopted. In his speech, Obama endorsed mandatory coverage for individuals, an approach he did not embrace as a candidate. He proposed during the campaign — as he does now — that larger businesses be required to offer insurance to workers or else pay into a fund. But he rejected the idea of requiring individuals to obtain insurance. He said people would get insurance without being forced to do so by the law, if coverage were made affordable. And he repeatedly criticized his Democratic primary rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, for proposing to mandate coverage. "To force people to get health insurance, you've got to have a very harsh penalty," he said in a February 2008 debate. Now, he says, "individuals will be required to carry basic health insurance — just as most states require you to carry auto insurance." He proposes a hardship waiver, exempting from the requirement those who cannot afford coverage despite increased federal aid.
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OBAMA: "There are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage."
THE FACTS: Obama time and again has referred to the number of uninsured as 46 million, a figure based on year-old Census data. The new number is based on an analysis by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, which concluded that about two-thirds of Americans without insurance are poor or near poor. "These individuals are less likely to be offered employer-sponsored coverage or to be able to afford to purchase their own coverage," the report said. By using the new figure, Obama avoids criticism that he is including individuals, particularly healthy young people, who choose not to obtain health insurance.