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April 27, 2010 -

Second Opinion: CMS REPORT: HEALTH CARE LAW RAISES COSTS, THREATENS CARE

Law Breaks President’s Promises to the American people

A month after the health care bill was signed into law, Americans continue to learn the impacts of this bad legislation.   

On April 22, 2010, the Chief Actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released a report that confirms that the law will increase health care costs, raise federal spending, threaten access to care for our seniors and result in higher premiums for Americans. 

Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) spoke about this report on the Senate floor.  Excerpts include:

“And in a rush by this body to pass a bill that to me was irresponsible, they've missed the things that now the Actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services has outlined in a very thorough report to the American people.

“Fundamentally, this says that health care costs are going to be higher, access to care is going to go down, the spending is unsustainable.  It's fascinating because this is in light of a speech by President Obama in June of 2009 when he said ‘if any bill, any bill arrives from Congress to his desk that is not controlling costs, that is not a bill that I can support.’

“Between 2010 and 2019, the national spending on health care is going to go up by $311 billion (page 4 of report). The President said he wanted a bill that was actually going to get the cost of care down and the spending on health care down.

“The President said that he wants to make sure that if you have care that you like, you can keep it. You can keep the care that you like. We all heard that. We heard it time and time again. But yet page 7 of this report by the President's agency says, about 14 million people will lose their employer coverage by 2019.

“Let's turn to page 8. An estimated 23 million people will remain uninsured by 2019. This is at a time when the President said he wanted to provide coverage for all of these people, but even 10 years out, 23 million people will still remain uninsured.

“What does it say about Medicare? They talk about the cuts to providers, to the people that take care of the patients on Medicare. They're expecting many providers, medical professionals it says to ‘end their participation in the program.’  This is going to jeopardize access to patient care.

“The President last year said he expects to lower the health care premiums for the average family in this country by $2,500.  What this says on page 17 of the report from the Actuary is that the new laws, fees and excise taxes, higher drug prices, device prices, this is all going to result in higher insurance premiums for American families.  The exact opposite of what the President promised.

“There are things that will work to get down the cost of care. There are things that will work to provide additional treatment for more people in America, more patients, better care. But they're not in this health care bill that passed the House, passed the Senate, signed into law by the President.”

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