Reconciliation Act Of 2010

Floor Speech

* Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, for the first time in history, the House of Representatives will pass a life-changing measure without a single Republican vote in favor. That vote will impact one-sixth of our U.S. economy and affect every man, woman and child in the nation, now and for generations to come.

* In almost every poll, the majority of Americans didn't like this bill or the manner in which it was placed before the Congress for a vote.

* According to the most recent Gallup Poll, 66 percent of Americans think the Democrats' massive government takeover of health care would make things worse or make no difference for themselves and their families.

* I believe we have started down a path of total government takeover of our health care system at a cost of almost $1 trillion now, and untold costs to be paid later in taxes, fines and loss of care. As a health care professional, my evaluation of the measure is that it will decrease access to health care, increase costs, put a bureaucrat between you and your physician and place quality care as an afterthought.

* I fear the impact on our rural hospitals and I fear this measure puts us on a path of no return, which will be spoken about in depressing and critical terms for decades to come.

* One hundred and thirty economists wrote to the President March 18th to tell him that the Health Care bill is a job-killer. Speaker of the House John Boehner released the contents of that letter.

* They wrote: ``The bill raises taxes by almost $500 billion over ten years. A significant portion of these tax increases will fall on small business owners, reducing capital and limiting economic growth and hiring.''

* And they wrote: ``The bill will impose a tax of $2000 per employee on employers with more than 50 employees that do not provide health insurance. The bill will also tax employers that offer health coverage deemed `unaffordable' by the government. These new taxes on employers will reduce employment or be passed on to workers in the form of lower wages or reduced hours.''

* It doesn't take much deduction to figure out that if you have 49 employees now, you will never hire the 50th employee. Why would you bring that burden on your business?

* Those with 53 or 54 employees will potentially fire four or five employees in order to go below the mandate.

* The economists concluded, ``The new and higher taxes on America's small businesses and workers included in the bill are detrimental to job creation and economic growth, especially now given the fragile state of the economy.''

* But the bill will create jobs--for the tax collector. Some 16,500 people will be hired as auditors, agents and other employees needed by the Internal Revenue Service to collect the hundreds of billions in new taxes. The cost of enforcement is estimated to be between $5 and $10 billion over 10 years and it is not paid for in the bill.

* The wealthier American people will be taxed to subsidize those who cannot afford their health care. And few will be able to afford health care as the mandates take shape and insurance companies are unable to make a profit under the new rules. The eventual result will be rationing of care.

* Rural hospitals already suffer from low reimbursement rates under Medicare and Medicaid. Those rates are eighty to ninety cents for one dollar of health care value in Medicare and forty to sixty cents for one dollar of health care value in Medicaid. When the federal government controls the private health care industry as well, no one will be paid the full cost of medical care.

* The bill cuts more than $200 billion from the Medicare Advantage program.

* Rural hospitals now get by with a one to three percent profit per year. If that evaporates, small hospitals will close.

* Republicans have been vocal in their support of the need to fix our health care system. We have dozens of bills including the ``Putting Patients First Act''--a bill I have co-sponsored. It allows purchase of health care across state lines, deals with pre-existing conditions and allows parents to keep their children on their health care plans until age 26. It does all of this without taxes or cuts in Medicare.

* We could have agreed on a number of issues. Instead, we have more than 3,000 pages of Senate bill, reconciliation package and manager's amendment that we will be unfolding and deciphering for years to come. The undiscovered, perhaps unintended, consequences will be continuing surprises.

* For example, according to The Wall Street Journal, Caterpillar Inc. announced that the bill will increase its health-care costs by $100 million in the first year--no doubt giving it, and many other American companies, another reason to move American jobs to foreign countries. I fear this is the tip of the iceberg.

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