HEALTH CARE IMPROVEMENTS
February 8, 2002 - WAR REPORT NUMBER 6-2002
As I draft this report, Senator Kennedy (D-MA) and the White House are in negotiations to resolve differences on the pending Patients Bill of Rights. My hope is that these negotiations continue until the 107th Congress ends and the effort dies. Why? Read on.

Since the dramatic defeat of Clinton's single-payer health care plan in 1994, the democrats have been using incremental reform tactics in their pursuit of a single-payer plan. They continue to use warm and fuzzy phrases that resonate with voters such as, child care, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), and the most recent, "The Patients Bill of Rights." Frankly, this is no bill of rights but a bundle of goodies or entitlements that democrats in Congress want to give you for your vote.

Last August, the Heritage Foundation held a panel discussion of experts to discuss the impact of the Patients Bill of Rights legislation on health care improvement. "The speakers found that the legislation as passed is both a prescription for expanded federal regulation and a prescription for unintended consequences, none of which will prove beneficial to America's health care consumers." I agree.

In April 2001, the Congressional Budget Office issued a cost estimate of the McCain-Kennedy protection bill. They predicted that the bill would result in a 4.2 percent increase in health care costs over a five-year period. This increase is in addition to a substantial rise in costs projected for 2002. Both parties know that for every 1 percent increase in health premiums, 300,000 to 400,000 people are priced out of the market. It's time for both parties to be guided by a financial impact statement similar to the proposal suggested by Senator Harkin (D-IA) in 1988: That neither the House nor the Senate should adopt health care legislation that would increase the number of uninsured Americans. I agree.

The GOP must understand that the democrats don't care about the escalating cost of premiums. Why? Because this strengthens the hands of the democrats who want the single-payer system. The democrats will say that they tried the market approach and it doesn't work. They will not say that it doesn't work because of government intervention.

Stay tuned! Why? Because I tell it like it is and it's your money.

God Bless America.