Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., unveiled the Democrat leadership’s final health-care product today, a reform that would cost approximately $894 billion, provide coverage to 36 million Americans through an expansion of Medicaid and create a government-run health-care option.

Pelosi and the Democrats have said that the government insurance program would be in competition with private insurance companies; however, Republicans say the government-run program would drive private insurance companies out of business.

While Medicaid is being expanded, Medicare — the government insurance program for senior citizens — would be cut by hundreds of billions of dollars.

“Today we are about to deliver on the promise of making affordable, quality health care available for all Americans laying the foundation for a brighter future for generations to come,” Pelosi said at this morning’s press conference.

Pelosi said the proposal, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, was based upon “key principles of American success,” such as opportunity, choice and competition.

Although Pelosi may have said the final reform bill would allow Americans the freedom of “choice,” the reform comes with a hefty amount of mandates. The Affordable Health Care for America Act requires that every American be covered by some type of insurance, and enforces taxes on those who do not receive the necessary coverage. Businesses would also be mandated to provide their employees with insurance or face fines and taxes.

Rep. Connie O’Brien, R-Tonganoxie, and member of the Aging and Long-Term Care Committee, said she was concerned how the health-care reform plans would affect Kansas senior citizens. O’Brien said she expected it to be a topic of debate in the upcoming session.

“I’m not sure what we will be able to do,” O’Brien told Kansas Liberty. “At this point, it is just a wait-and-see type of situation. We know that this reform will result in more mandates and less freedom of choice.”

Initially in the health-care reform process, Medicaid was to be expanded to cover all Americans who earned 133 percent less than the federal poverty level, but the newest reform plans ramp the coverage up to those earning less than 150 percent of the poverty level.

Previous reform plans also have stipulated that while the federal government would provide the majority of the funding to offset additional costs for the expansion of Medicaid for a short period of time, most states would have to pick up the tab after about five years. Sen. Harry Reid, a Democrat representing Nevada, worked to ensure that his state, along with three other states, would not have to absorb any of the extra costs.

It is unclear at this time how the new reform plan would address the issue of providing federal funds to help pay for the mandated expansion, but if the final product included previous provisions, Kansas would have to significantly increase the size of its budget to absorb the extra costs.

A Heritage Foundation report identified Kansas as a state that would experience one of the greatest increases in citizens receiving Medicaid. Kansas Republicans argue that the additional fiscal burden that would result from funding the expansion would crush the state’s economy.

A Congressional Budget Office report estimated that states’ budgets would need to grow by $37 billion to cover the additional benefits. However, this report was based on the understanding that Medicaid coverage would be ramped up to 133 percent, not 150 percent as it now stands, meaning states would need to increase the size of their budgets even more.

Kansas House Majority Leader Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, said he thought the idea of the federal government requiring the state provide funding for its expansion of Medicaid would wreck the state’s economy, and said he was very hopeful that the measure would not be a part of any final reform that could be passed out of Congress.

“I would question whether or not something like this would even manage to pass, but if it did it would devastate our budget,” Merrick told Kansas Liberty. “We have enough problems without adding to it, but the Democrats are going to do whatever they want and let the country suffer.”

Merrick said the only way to finance such a large expansion at the state level would be to increase taxes, something he is not supportive of, but something the Democrats and the "moderates" in the Kansas Legislature would be likely to endorse.

“There would have to be a gigantic tax increase,” Merrick said. “And I would hope that the will of the Legislature is not to raise taxes, but there are too many people who don’t have a lot of guts when they get pinned into a corner, and the easiest way out is to raise taxes.”

Pelosi said she hopes to have a final vote on the bill before Nov. 11.

Though the final product was supposed to be a compromise between the liberal House health proposal and the more moderate proposal coming out of the Senate Finance Committee, the act appears to model more closely the House’s reform.

Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and member of the Senate Finance Committee, warned fellow committee members that the end result would not resemble the more moderate plan before he voted against the proposal from Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.

Now it appears Roberts’ predictions were correct. Roberts and Kansas Republican Sen. Sam Brownback have consistently spoken out against the Democrats' reform efforts. Kansas Reps. Lynn Jenkins, Jerry Moran and Todd Tiahrt have also voiced their opposition to the Democrats' health-care reform proposal since the plans first surfaced, and are also categorically opposed to the final product.

Kansas' lone Democratic representative, Dennis Moore, has said he approves of the Democratic leadership's reform efforts, including the public insurance option.

Tiahrt, from the Fourth District, and Senate candidate, said that the health-care reform amounted to “1,000 pages of government intrusion.”

“Americans have been loud and clear — a $900 billion bill that includes a loss of freedom in choosing healthcare options, hurts seniors, lacks proof of citizenship requirements and crushes jobs and small businesses will not be accepted,” Tiahrt said in a press release. “However, instead of listening to the American people express their views in town hall meetings, letters, emails, phone calls and other means, Speaker Pelosi has continued her rampage to prevent Republican ideas from being included.”

Moran, from the First District, and Senate candidate, questioned whether the price tag was an accurate reflection of how much the monumental reform would actually end up costing.

“This bill would turn much of our health care delivery system on its head by creating a new government-sponsored health care program financed by long-term deficit spending and new taxes,” Moran said in a news release. “History demonstrates that a government-run health care program will be significantly more expensive than its proponents claim. All the experience we have of health entitlement programs is that they end up costing much more than estimated, adding to our debt and the burden on taxpayers."

Jenkins, from the Second District, said the Democrats' final product would result in an increase of taxes and an expansion of government.

“By taking the go-it-alone approach, Speaker Pelosi appears to have drafted another nearly trillion dollar plan that will raise taxes on our nation’s small businesses, grow the government, further erode our nation’s fiscal stability and put a government bureaucrat between patients and their doctors,” Jenkins said in a news release.

Jenkins said she would be supportive of a reform that would be more incremental and that would work to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.

The Kansas Republican Party also issued a statement on the final Democratic reform plans and pointed out that Democratic congressional candidates Sen. Laura Kelly, D-Topeka, and Rep. Raj Goyle, D-Wichita, have yet to make a formal announcement on their stance on health care.

“A public option risking the quality of health care for Americans and a price tag that has to be determined by the Congressional Budget Office loom just one week away and yet Kansans still do not know where Laura Kelly and Raj Goyle stand on this issue,” said GOP Chair Amanda Adkins in a written statement issued today. “I call on state Sen. Kelly and state Rep. Goyle to stand up and tell the voters of our Great State if they would represent Kansans in Washington or fall in line with Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic leadership."

Resources

Moran’s statement on updated health care bill

Rep. Todd Tiahrt statement on updated reform

Rep. Lynn Jenkins press release on updated reform

Kansas Republican Party statement on new reform bill

link to health care bill

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