Health Care

Floor Speech

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, yesterday I noted that all of us wish to reform health care but that we need to do so without sacrificing what Americans like about our current system. They like the freedom, they like the choice, they like the quality of care, they like the options, and they like the efficiency. I also noted that the kind of government takeover of health care that some of our Democratic friends are contemplating could lead to a decline in every one of those things. This morning, I wish to explain in a little greater detail how it could happen.

The first point I wish to make is that the very concept of a government option is itself misleading. What starts out as an option could quickly become the only option. This is clear to anyone who realizes that, unlike market-based health plans, any government-run plan would have unlimited access to taxpayer money and could use that money to subsidize the cost of services, and artificially lower prices would make the government-run plan more attractive to individuals and businesses. Some say this could be avoided by creating ``safeguards'' to ensure a level playing field for the market-based insurers and a government plan. But no safeguard could create a truly level playing field, and any safeguard could easily be eliminated once a government plan is enacted. A government plan would also be able to operate at a loss--a loss the taxpayers would have to cover one way or another.

Government could also keep health care costs artificially low by paying providers less than private insurers do, just as it already does with both Medicare and Medicaid. At first blush, that may actually sound appealing, but as we know, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Let me explain.

Right now, doctors and hospitals make up the difference between what a procedure costs and what the government is willing to pay for it by passing those costs on to private insurers. But doctors and hospitals would likely get even less under a new government health plan, so they would shift even more costs on to private insurers, who would then raise rates for individuals and businesses even higher than they were before. Once these higher rates take effect, employers would be all but certain to start encouraging workers to enroll in the government-run plan.

As a result of all of this, it is easy to see how private market health plans would become more and more expensive and thus less and less affordable and accessible. At some point, private health plans would likely be crowded out altogether, and government care would be the only option left. That is where the delays and the denied care would begin to kick in. Under a government system, Americans would have no choice but to accept all the bureaucratic hassles and the endless time spent on hold waiting for a government service representative to take their calls. They would also have to deal with all of the restrictions of care that inevitably follow. What is being advertised as an option will eventually lead to delays--delays in testing, delays in diagnosis, and delays in treatment.

So the question Americans need to ask themselves is whether this is the reform they really want. Do we really want a government takeover of health care, because that is what a so-called government option would lead to in very short order. Americans need to realize that when someone says ``government option,'' what could really occur is a government takeover that soon could lead to government bureaucrats denying and delaying care and telling Americans what kind of care they can have.

The irony in all of this is that as a result of a government takeover of health care, the private plans tens of millions of Americans currently enjoy will eventually only be available to just a very few wealthy Americans--to those who are able to pay for more health care than they currently have and like. According to a recent study, 119 million Americans would lose the private coverage they currently have as a consequence of a government plan. The best options would only remain available to a select few.

Over the last few months, we have seen government getting involved in virtually every aspect of our economy. Washington is suddenly running the banks and the auto companies. Now it is thinking about running America's health care. The results, I am afraid, would not lead to the kinds of reforms Americans really want in their health care. Instead, it would lead to a system that most Americans would deeply regret.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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