Letter to My Senators
I sent the following Senators this afternoon.
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Dear Senator,
I absolutely oppose the healthcare reform bill currently being considered by the Senate (the Affordable Health Choices Act). While I support improvements to our healthcare system, this is fundamentally the wrong approach.
For one thing, the public option combined with the employer mandate or employer fine will clearly drive many employers to drop their healthcare plans. Think about it. Employers could pay thousands of dollars per employee per year or they could pay a $750 per employee fee for not providing insurance. That’s an easy choice in this business climate. Realistically, millions of people will be pushed out of their current plans because of that.
Second, subsidizing people’s plans with incomes up to $88,000? That’s quite offensive and nakedly intended to create a large constituency of people who are net beneficiaries of government largesse.
Third, it ignores the fact that government’s actions have been a significant cause of the rising cost of healthcare. From the incentive-skewing tax break for employers, to the prohibition on crossing state lines to purchase insurance to one-size-fits-all coverage mandates the federal government has been a big part of the problem. Good intentions do not automatically make good policy.
What we need are reforms that put consumers in charge of their own healthcare and minimize the involvement of both private and government bureaucrats in our healthcare decisions. Let’s expand the use of Health Savings Accounts combined with high deductable catastrophic care insurance. That will reduce the cost of healthcare because the people who consume healthcare services will have a direct financial stake in paying for them.
The only reforms that will succeed in lowering costs, expanding coverage and maintaining quality of care are those that restore a real market in healthcare.
Please oppose on the Affordable Health Choices Act.