PBrady
06-06-2010, 11:35 AM
I posted this in general, too, but wanted to copy it here...
His article was a response to an earlier article written by David Price (which can be seen here (http://www.chapelhillnews.com/2010/05/09/56838/lets-set-the-record-straight.html)):
What Price left out
BY WILLIAM (B.J.) LAWSON
Rep. David Price recently wrote to "set the record straight" regarding Washington's health care legislation.
Rep. Price argues that the government's central planning will make health insurance more affordable for small businesses and individuals. Touting tax credits covering 35 percent of premiums for small businesses with less than 25 employees and less than $50,000 in average annual wages, Rep. Price asserts that the new law will encourage small businesses to offer health coverage for their employees.
What happens if a business adds a 26th employee? Bye-bye, tax credit. Now employees will be forced to choose between a pay raise and insurance, and employers will choose between hiring employees and offering health insurance.
Rep. Price doesn't mention that eligibility requirements for the credit are so restrictive that it will impede small business expansion.
Rep. Price also claims that reform will lower insurance premiums for businesses and individuals through state-based exchanges offering group rates. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office disagrees, however, and projects that insurance premiums with the exchanges will actually increase by 10 to 13 percent. Higher costs are inevitable with new federal restrictions that limit coverage options and end high-deductible health plans
To offset these more expensive premiums, we're asked to fund subsidies that require expensive tax increases simply to provide guaranteed revenue growth to insurance companies. Also, this plan keeps in place the unfair advantage that allows businesses to purchase insurance with pretax dollars, while denying individuals the same opportunity.
Since President Obama signed the reform into law, he and Rep. Price have repeated the outright lie that reform will lower costs. The actuaries at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) say health costs will continue to rise by $311 billion over the next 10 years with this reform.
Furthermore, CMS actuaries predict some 14 million Americans will lose their current, employer-sponsored coverage. CNN Money recently reported that many large companies are considering dropping employees from current health plans.
As a physician, patient, and parent, I know we desperately need health care reform. This misguided legislation moves in the wrong direction, however, by placing more emphasis on health "insurance" than health care. So-called "insurance plans" with low deductibles and co-pays are not insurance at all - they are simply middlemen that add cost, ration care, and stand between patients and providers.
Instead, we must return control of our health care system to patients and providers.
Successful direct-pay practices provide the highest-quality primary care while lowering costs by up to 90 percent. The secret is eliminating the middlemen, and the expense required to deal with government bureaucrats and insurance companies.
The combination of low-overhead, direct-pay medicine for outpatient care with tax-deductible health-care savings accounts and high-deductible health insurance for hospitalizations and surgeries is the best way to empower patients and providers, lift the burden from employers and small business, and provide affordable health care for every American.
William (B.J.) Lawson, M.D. is running as the Republican candidate to represent N.C.'s Fourth Congressional District.
http://www.chapelhillnews.com/2010/06/06/57442/what-price-left-out.html
His article was a response to an earlier article written by David Price (which can be seen here (http://www.chapelhillnews.com/2010/05/09/56838/lets-set-the-record-straight.html)):
What Price left out
BY WILLIAM (B.J.) LAWSON
Rep. David Price recently wrote to "set the record straight" regarding Washington's health care legislation.
Rep. Price argues that the government's central planning will make health insurance more affordable for small businesses and individuals. Touting tax credits covering 35 percent of premiums for small businesses with less than 25 employees and less than $50,000 in average annual wages, Rep. Price asserts that the new law will encourage small businesses to offer health coverage for their employees.
What happens if a business adds a 26th employee? Bye-bye, tax credit. Now employees will be forced to choose between a pay raise and insurance, and employers will choose between hiring employees and offering health insurance.
Rep. Price doesn't mention that eligibility requirements for the credit are so restrictive that it will impede small business expansion.
Rep. Price also claims that reform will lower insurance premiums for businesses and individuals through state-based exchanges offering group rates. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office disagrees, however, and projects that insurance premiums with the exchanges will actually increase by 10 to 13 percent. Higher costs are inevitable with new federal restrictions that limit coverage options and end high-deductible health plans
To offset these more expensive premiums, we're asked to fund subsidies that require expensive tax increases simply to provide guaranteed revenue growth to insurance companies. Also, this plan keeps in place the unfair advantage that allows businesses to purchase insurance with pretax dollars, while denying individuals the same opportunity.
Since President Obama signed the reform into law, he and Rep. Price have repeated the outright lie that reform will lower costs. The actuaries at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) say health costs will continue to rise by $311 billion over the next 10 years with this reform.
Furthermore, CMS actuaries predict some 14 million Americans will lose their current, employer-sponsored coverage. CNN Money recently reported that many large companies are considering dropping employees from current health plans.
As a physician, patient, and parent, I know we desperately need health care reform. This misguided legislation moves in the wrong direction, however, by placing more emphasis on health "insurance" than health care. So-called "insurance plans" with low deductibles and co-pays are not insurance at all - they are simply middlemen that add cost, ration care, and stand between patients and providers.
Instead, we must return control of our health care system to patients and providers.
Successful direct-pay practices provide the highest-quality primary care while lowering costs by up to 90 percent. The secret is eliminating the middlemen, and the expense required to deal with government bureaucrats and insurance companies.
The combination of low-overhead, direct-pay medicine for outpatient care with tax-deductible health-care savings accounts and high-deductible health insurance for hospitalizations and surgeries is the best way to empower patients and providers, lift the burden from employers and small business, and provide affordable health care for every American.
William (B.J.) Lawson, M.D. is running as the Republican candidate to represent N.C.'s Fourth Congressional District.
http://www.chapelhillnews.com/2010/06/06/57442/what-price-left-out.html