An Analysis of the Senate Democrats' Health Care Bill
by the Staff of the Center for Health Policy and the Staff of the Center for Data Analysis
Abstract: The Senate health care bill would overhaul the entire health care sector of the U.S. economy by erecting massive federal controls over private health insurance, dictating the content of insurance benefit packages and the use of medical treatments, procedures, and medical devices. It would alter the relationship between the federal government and the states, transferring massive regulatory power to the federal government. The bill would also restrict the personal and economic freedom of American citizens by imposing controversial and unprecedented mandates on businesses and individuals, including an individual mandate to buy insurance.
The U.S. Senate is locked in an intense floor debate over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590), a massive 2,074-page health care bill that would directly affect every man, woman, and child in the United States. Its enactment would shape the character and quality of life in America for generations to come.
The Senate bill's complex and sweeping provisions would affect virtually every aspect of the huge health care sector of the U.S. economy.
•Like the House bill,[1] it would transfer massive regulatory authority from the states to the federal government and make enormous changes in the nation's health insurance markets;
•It would dramatically alter the financing and content of employer-provided and individual health insurance and significantly change Medicare and Medicaid;
•It would change how hospitals, doctors, and other medical professionals are paid and how physicians and other medical professionals deliver care; and
•It would impose controversial and unprecedented mandates on businesses and individuals, including an individual mandate to buy insurance,[2] thus restricting the personal and economic freedom of American citizens.
In effect, the Senate bill would produce the greatest concentration of political and economic power over one major sector of the U.S. economy in the nation's history.
It is not surprising that the Senate bill is highly unpopular.[3] For ordinary Americans, the legislative process has definitely not been a demonstration of the way a law is made as portrayed in civics textbooks or the kind of rational deliberation envisioned by the Founding Fathers. Surprising provisions, unintended consequences, and unreliable assumptions characterize this proposal. Key provisions, such as the provision of a "public plan" to compete against private health plans, are particularly controversial, and the Senate leadership is rapidly floating and rejecting new schemes to secure the 60 votes necessary to end the debate and quickly pass the bill.
Without the benefit of legislative language, hearings, expert testimony, or committee deliberation and debate, various untested proposals have been floated for press and popular consumption. Writing of the latest scheme to secure a compromise, the editors of The Washington Post noted, "The only thing more unsettling than watching legislative sausage being made is watching it being made on the fly."[4]
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Whether you're a Democrat, Republican or Independent, if you want ACCURATE information on what's really in these bills, visit Heritage.org. They are the most reliable resource for information. When the politicians lie and spin to you what's in these bills and what these programs cost, the Heritage Foundation breaks down the real cost, the real numbers and gives you the REAL information the politicians do NOT want you to know about.
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