|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Saturday, August 08, 2009
Source: Corsicana Daily Sun
Author: Janet Jacobs
|
| |
Barton: Healthcare bill not healthy
|
| Within days of the U.S. House of Representatives wrapping up for summer break, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Arlington, was already touring the district, talking about what’s going on in Washington, D.C.
Of particular concern is the health care proposal that was recently passed out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, on which Barton is the ranking Republican.
“I hope the bill passed in my committee dies,” Barton said of the healthcare bill. “It will radically change healthcare in America.”
The bill includes the creation of another bureaucracy to manage healthcare, he said.
“Everyone has to have health insurance, it’s an individual mandate, and there’s an employer mandate,” Barton said. “There’s mandated coverage and surtaxes, an income tax to pay for it.”
It also includes some cuts to the Medicare Advantage program.
It’s a plan that puts too much faith and power in the hands of the government, Barton said.
“I don’t believe that’s where the American people are,” he said. “It’s not where my people are.”
Barton sees two significant problems with healthcare as it is now; first, the cost, and second, that some people, such as those with pre-existing conditions, can’t get insurance.
He proposed an amendment creating state risk pools, to insure those who can’t qualify for health insurance now. He said the pools would only cost about $2 billion a year.
“We can cover the people who can’t get it with a national pool or cooperative, it’s not expensive or complicated,” he said. Incentives could be created to encourage people to get the insurance, Barton suggested.
“I offered that amendment, and it was soundly defeated,” he said.
Barton also suggested an amendment to require doctors, hospitals and other health providers to become more transparent. It would mean price lists for various procedures, so patients could go shopping for the best price. The transparency would also require success rates, so consumers could also go to the safest or most successful doctors or hospitals.
“There’s no way to control costs until you have transparency,” he said.
Currently, one-fifth of the money made in America goes into healthcare, but the business of healthcare is still not computerized, and the government is having to pay companies and doctors to create electronic files for patients.
Barton said the reality of it came home to him four years ago when he had a heart attack in the capitol building. In a meeting, he began to feel poorly and he walked across the corridor to the capitol physician’s office. Within 10 minutes he was on his way to the hospital. Once at the hospital, however, he kept having to fill out the same paperwork, over and over.
Still, he knows it was a close call.
“I was real lucky,” Barton said. He also pointed out that there isn’t a special insurance company for congressmen. Like most employers, the federal government offers congressmen a series of choices, depending on how much they want to spend. His insurance is with Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Texas, he said.
Barton and his fellow representatives are on a break from D.C. until after Labor Day. He isn’t convinced the healthcare law will pass immediately after that. He looks for it to rear up again later in the fall. In the meantime, he expects to be fighting against cap and trade.
“I think the bloom is off the Obama rose,” he said.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|