Republicans Present Another Serious Alternative Health Care Plan
Earlier this year, U.S. President Barack Obama said he would listen to Republicans who’d propose serious alternative health care plans. Well, time to deliver on this promise, I’d say:
Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), chairman of the Republican Study Committee, has joined a host of other Republicans in the House of Representatives by crafting a serious conservative alternative to the health plans that the President and the Democratic leadership are trying to push through Congress.
Dr. Price, who was a practicing physician for nearly 25 years before coming to Congress, has made a diagnosis and offered his prescription for what ails the current health care system.
Price writes, “Contrary to what the president has tried to convince the American people of, while we oppose his misguided ideas, Republicans are committed to positive health reform. No one in Congress finds the status quo acceptable.”
But, but, but… I was sure Republicans refused to even consider fixing health care!
Dr. Price has offered a third way– one that moves away from the current third-party dominated system to give patients more direct control over their own health care decisions and dollars. His legislation, the Empower Patients First Act, would:
* Fix the unfairness in the tax treatment of health insurance by extending a tax credit or deduction to those without employer-sponsored insurance;
* Use automatic enrollment, with a right to “opt out” of health insurance coverage, and promote defined-contributions for employer plans, instead of using government coercion and mandates, to expand coverage;
* Establish health plan portals in the states so that patients can own and control their own health insurance;
* Offer low-income Americans the option of a voucher to purchase private coverage; and
* Give states incentives to experiment with how best to cover high cost individuals.
Now, that sounds like a plan. Doesn’t it?
This post has been linked for the HOT5 Daily 10/02/2009, at The Unreligious Right
Matches well with other GOP plans that Pbama claims don’t exist.
It is very unfortunate that the plan is coming so late in the game. Some of the ideas could have served to support a bipartisan bill. Now, the ideas from this bill will likely only be used to criticize the existing bill when elements of the bill could in fact be offering some decent ideas to the discussion.
@Wellescent Health Blog
I do not believe that a “bipartisan” bill would have been possible under any circumstances. Primarily because health care is only part of this effort. Control of this segment of the economy is, and has been for a long time an important component of the left’s expectation of an ideological resurgence. There is virtually nothing about this debate that has changed in the nearly 20 years since Hillarycare. The left refuses to give an inch, it’s basically full control or nothing at all for them and for the Republicans, well once they figure out how to get something for themselves out of it, they may get on board.