It has been three years since President Barack Obama led a partisan effort by Washington Democrats to pass an overhaul of America’s health care system. As the government begins to implement more and more facets of the law, it is becoming clearer to even its most ardent supporters the disaster awaiting doctors, patients, medical innovators and the economy at large.
One of the Senate’s chief architects of the law has said he fears a “huge train wreck” is approaching. Another has said the law is so complex, it is “just beyond comprehension.” Even labor unions that stood with Democrats as they went about passing the legislation are now turning against it — the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers going as far as to call for its repeal.
The reasons to scrap the law are numerous. Health care premiums are rising, not falling. Full-time job opportunities will be shifted to part-time in response to the law’s new rules and regulations. The IRS, the enforcement arm, is gearing up to impose mandates and new taxes on individuals, families, employers and even innovative medical technologies. Many states realize there is a serious logistical and financial gamble that comes with setting up the law’s insurance exchanges or expanding the Medicaid program.
Advocates of patient-centered health reforms have long predicted these and other harmful consequences of the president’s health care law. It is why the House of Representatives voted once again earlier this month to repeal it in full so we can protect the principles of health care we hold dear: accessibility, affordability, choices, innovation, responsiveness and quality.
That vote, and other repeal efforts, have drawn criticism from the law’s defenders. These are the same folks who, in large part, believe the American people ought to sit down, keep quiet and be resigned to a world where the federal government controls their health care decisions. They’d rather spend time figuring out how to manage the train wreck than pulling the emergency brake and avoiding it!
For our part, House Republicans are not interested in giving up on the fight for patient-centered reforms or abandoning the American people to a declining health care system. We see no virtue in degrading access to quality, affordable health care choices so that Washington can dictate the what, when and how of health care delivery. It makes no sense to incentivize businesses to create fewer jobs or physicians to see fewer patients — all of which will occur under the president’s health care law.
Those who are continuing to defend and implement the law are doing so despite mounting evidence that the American people, our health care system, and our economy are going to suffer the consequences. Instead of criticizing efforts to repeal the law, they ought to respond to its failings by joining our efforts to pursue patient-centered solutions that put patients, families and doctors in charge, not Washington.
Republican Rep. Tom Price, a physician, represents Georgia’s 6th Congressional District.
