From the office of House Leader John Boeher:
It turns out there is a health care plan that meets all of the “core goals” for reform that President Obama laid out at the White House today, and Republicans have offered it. Lower costs? Check. Preventing insurance abuses? Check. Making health insurance more accessible? Check. By actually raising costs, Democrats’ massive government takeover of health care doesn’t even meet goal one. Republicans are asking serious questions about the proposed White House health care summit because the American people want to start over on a step-by-step approach to lowering costs for families and small businesses. The only way to do that is through a honest, bipartisan conversation. But if the President’s starting point is the same job-killing government takeover of health care the American people have already soundly rejected, then the credibility of this proposed summit is certainly worth questioning.
GOP HEALTH CARE PLAN MEETS ALL OF PRESIDENT OBAMA’S “CORE GOALS” FOR REFORM, DEMS’ GOV’T TAKEOVER FAILS TO MEET GOAL ONE:
- President Obama: “We've got to control costs, both for families and businesses, but also for our government.”
The GOP health care plan lowers premiums by up to 10 percent and reduces federal spending on health care without cutting Medicare or raising taxes, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). But Democrats’ government takeover of health care actually increases costs, according to experts at the Department of Health and Human Services’ Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
- President Obama: “Number two, we’ve got to deal with insurance abuses that affect millions of Americans who’ve got health insurance.”
The GOP health care plan makes it illegal for an insurance company to deny coverage to someone with prior coverage on the basis of a pre-existing condition. So if you lose your health insurance because you lose your job, move, get divorced, or just want to change plans, you are protected. The GOP health care plan also prohibits an insurer from cancelling a policy unless an individual knowingly commits fraud on an application form. It also prohibits insurance plans from instituting annual or lifetime spending limits.
- President Obama: “And number three, we've got to make health insurance more available to folks in the individual markets…”
The GOP health care plan establishes Universal Access Programs so all patients with preexisting conditions will have access to affordable health care coverage – without waiting lists. The GOP plan also rewards innovation by providing incentives to states which adopt reforms that reduce the cost of health insurance and expand coverage. CBO predicts these reforms will help lower premiums for families, individuals and small businesses as well as reduce the number of uninsured.