The Obama Experiment

President Obama wants to conduct a dangerous experiment with your health care. We need to reform our health care system. Today, health care costs too much. But the radical new government-run system the Democrats want to impose will make health care more expensive, raise taxes, and harm the quality of care Americans currently receive.

The price tag for President Obama’s and Congressional Democrats’ health care plan is more than $1.6 trillion. To pay for their plan, President Obama and the Democrats have proposed raising taxes on the health benefits Americans receive from their employer, eliminating existing tax breaks for medical savings accounts, and even creating new taxes on alcohol, sodas, sports drinks, energy drinks and iced tea.

The Democrats’ government-run health care plan would lead to government bureaucrats determining what health care treatments, tests and procedures a patient could receive, if they are allowed certain procedures at all. And a government-run plan backed by tax dollars and subsidies will undercut private insurance rates, force private insurers out of business and force as many as 88 million Americans to join the government-run plan, even if they like their existing plan and their current doctor.

President Obama and Democrats have already rushed through Congress more than one radical experiment – the federal government has already spent trillions of dollars on bailouts for banks and auto companies and on a stimulus bill that is increasing government spending and debt, but not creating jobs. President Obama’s grand health care experiment is something America simply can’t afford.

The government-run health care system that President Obama and Congressional Democrats want to impose on America would significantly impact the quality of care physicians are able to provide their patients and deny both the ability to take a greater role in health care decisions.

President Obama’s government-run plan will unfairly compete with the current private market, eventually leaving the government-run plan as the only option for many Americans. Under the Democrats’ government-run plan, federal bureaucrats would make determinations regarding standards of care that should be made by physicians in consultation with their patients. It would deny Americans the ability to choose their own health care plan and physicians.

And President Obama has made it clear his plan would do nothing to end frivolous lawsuits against physicians that impact care and raise costs throughout our health care system.

Various physicians and medical organizations have already publicly opposed President Obama’s dangerous government-run health care experiment, from the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and Congress of Neurological Surgeons, to the Medical Society of Delaware and Medical Association of Georgia, to former presidents of the American Medical Association Dr. Donald Palmisano, MD, JD, FACS and Dr. William G. Plested, III, MD, FACS, to the Mayo Clinic – because they know the Democrats’ health care plan would gravely harm the physician-patient relationship.

Make no mistake, President Obama and Congressional Democrats want to pay for their health care plan at the expense of small businesses. We need to reform our health care system. It simply costs too much for small businesses to provide coverage to their employees, especially in today’s recession. But the Democrats’ health care plan would impose punitive taxes on small businesses to create their government-run system.

Not only would the Democrats’ plan impose a mandate on small businesses that already provide health coverage to their workers and enforce it with an additional 8 percent payroll tax; the Democrats would levy a new surtax on small businesses that employ roughly one-quarter of America’s entire workforce.

The Democrats’ government-run plan would be both a participant and regulator in their new health care system, allowing it to unfairly compete in the private market. It would create a powerful health care “czar” with authority to make new rules and regulations impacting small businesses. And it would allow federal bureaucrats to dictate the health care coverage that small businesses provide their own workers.

President Obama’s and Congressional Democrats’ government-run health care plan would impose punitive taxes, mandates and more government regulation on small businesses, but do absolutely nothing to solve the biggest problem – actually reducing the cost of health care.

Even senior citizens who rely on Medicare and Medicaid for their health care will face consequences because of the Democrats’ government-run health care experiment.

Most worrisome, the Democrats’ government-run health care plan would lead to government bureaucrats determining what health care treatments, tests and procedures a patient could receive, if they are allowed certain procedures at all. Seniors could be most affected – in an effort to control costs, a government-run plan could deny seniors certain treatments altogether.

House Democrats would cut more than $350 billion from Medicare to pay for their government-run plan, including making changes to Medicare Part D, a move that would constitute a tax increase on seniors according to PhRMA.

Every American could face a higher tax to pay for the Democrats’ plan. Higher taxes on items such as sodas, sports drinks, and iced tea would impact everyone, especially senior citizens struggling to make ends meet on fixed incomes in today’s recession. And the Democrats’ government-run health care plan would cost more than $1 trillion and add another $219 billion to the deficit, which is already at a record high $1.8 trillion.