Posted by
Gabrielle Cusumano on Monday, November 09, 2009 6:32:42 PM
Thank you for contacting my office about health care reform and H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act. I appreciate hearing from you, and I am pleased for the opportunity to respond to your concerns.
As Washington has debated health care reform for the last several months, I have made been meeting with and listening to the views of my constituents, whom I am proud to represent. It is undeniable that the health care system in the United States faces serious challenges. Millions of Americans have no insurance, which limits their access to care and their ability to pay for the care they receive. Costs are rising for everyone, stressing budgets of families and small businesses.
H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, was introduced by Representative John Dingell on October 29, 2009. Most notably, this bill would create a government run health care plan that would compete with private insurance plans. One of the key aspects of H.R. 3962 would be the establishment of an Advisory Council tasked with determining what health care plans would be legally required to cover or exclude. This reform plan would be paid for through a combination of cuts to Medicare totaling $426 billion and additional taxes on individuals and small businesses.
In order to expand health care coverage, H.R. 3692 would introduce individual and employer mandates. Every individual who chooses not to obtain "qualified" coverage would be forced to pay a penalty of 2.5 percent of their modified adjusted gross income. Employer mandates would require businesses to pay for their employee's health care, or pay a penalty of 8% of their payroll. When many businesses are paying in excess of 15% of their employees' payroll in health care premiums right now, a perverse incentive may be created under the proposed health care plan to force their workers onto the government run plan. This will cause a tax increase for hardworking Americans as they are left to pick up the tab.
The long term costs of implementing this plan are extraordinary. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that this bill will cost over $1.2 trillion dollars for the next ten years. Additionally, the Director of the CBO testified before the Senate on July 16th that the health care overhauls proposed in this legislation would increase, not reduce, the growing long-term health care costs facing the government.
The House considered this legislation on November 7, 2009. During floor proceedings, one significant improvement was made to the bill when the House adopted an amendment that prohibited taxpayer dollars from being used to pay for abortion. I was proud to join my colleagues in approving this language.
This improvement notwithstanding, H.R 3962 remains a very poor piece of legislation that will raise taxes on individuals and businesses, expand the national debt that our children and grandchildren will have to pay, and force millions of Americans onto a government run health care plan. With national unemployment at 10 percent and Michigan's unemployment rate at 15 percent, Congress should be focusing on creating jobs. This bill is the wrong prescription to reform health care and to create jobs. Despite my vote in opposition, the House narrowly approved this measure by a vote of 220-215, and it will now head to the Senate for consideration in that body.
Again, thank you for your correspondence on this very important issue. If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact my office. If you would like to stay up to date on issues in Congress and how they affect you, please sign up to receive Congresswoman Miller's monthly e-newsletter, The Washington Connection, at candicemiller.house.gov. It was all of the information you need about current events in our nation's capitol and their impact on Michigan's -- Congressional District.