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Health Care Debate
Must be More Deliberate
Elections have consequences and the most recent one has changed the Congressional landscape and legislative priorities of Washington, D.C.
With Congress just wrapping up its annual August breather, many Americans are left catching their collective breath regarding the hurry up nature of the 111th Congress; especially as it relates to health care reform. The recent presidential push suggests there is more interest in passing a bill, any bill, than rationally identifying meaningful reform.
Farm Bureau believes health care reform is needed, recognizing whatever action is taken will effect all Americans and a substantial portion of our nation’s economy. However, let’s also recognize that Americans enjoy access to the best health care available in the world. America’s entrepreneurial spirit has provided the backdrop for medical breakthroughs that are the envy of the world. Massive health care reform should not choke off innovation, create rationing, destabilize physician training, infringe on doctor/patient relationships or extend waiting periods for care.
The Obama administration and majority party leadership in Congress had hoped to pass a massive health care reform package before the annual Congressional August recess. Just like with the stimulus bill and the Waxman-Markey cap and trade legislation, it appears many members of Congress left Washington without doing their homework. The House-generated health care overhaul package, driven by special interests, exceeds 1,000 pages. Few members had read it and even fewer understand it.
The Congressional Budget Office has told Congress that the proposed legislation would significantly expand the federal government’s responsibility for health care costs and expand the federal deficit, fail to contain increasing medical costs, worsen the problem of rapidly escalating medical spending while still leaving millions of Americans uninsured.
The administration’s and Congressional leader’s attempt to gratify political favoritism has been met with contempt and consternation across the land. August recess is historically a time for members of Congress to return to their home states for congenial visits with their constituents. Not so this year! Fast tracking health care reform, continued efforts to centralize and increase the reach of the federal government, an out-of-control bloated federal budget and exploding federal deficits have lead to contentious Town Hall meetings across America.
The deliberate, well-thought-out and reasoned approach to policy making that is demanded by Americans appears to have been abandoned for political expediency.
Farm Bureau is concerned about disparities between rural and urban health care. Shortages of facilities and qualified health care professionals continue to challenge our rural communities. According to the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, 20 percent of Americans live in rural areas, while only nine percent of doctors in our country practice there. Government mandates, programs and incentives need to encourage access to adequate and affordable health care, including rural communities.
Health care reform must not only address access but cost. Agriculture is cyclical in nature, creating tight profit margins for farm and ranch families. Unprofitable years are as common as profitable ones. Most farmers and ranchers are self-employed individuals and purchase their own health insurance. Farm Bureau supports tax incentives that will help individuals pay for health care and to afford health insurance for their families. The health insurance tax deduction for self-employed must be continued.
Farm Bureau supports deductibility for all medical expenses and expanding tax incentives for health saving accounts. Reform to create a health insurance “exchange” would make it easier to compare prices and purchase insurance products while increasing market competition. These and other reforms will increase availability, quality and affordability without the creation of a public insurance option run by the federal government.
The politically motivated rush to pass health care reform could permanently damage America’s health care system. We don’t want Britain’s rationed health care and we don’t want the long lines and waiting periods of the Canadian system. As with our own personal health care, a well-defined surgical approach is better than wildly swinging a meat axe in an attempt to fix the problem. America still has the finest health care in the world.
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