If there’s one issue that virtually all Coloradans agree on, it’s that our healthcare system needs a major overhaul. The good news is that policymakers in Washington are focused like never before on the cause of reform.
But as the spotlight continues to shine on this important debate, it is essential that the President and Congress avoid taking steps that will actually make the problems worse for American workers and their families.
Everyday, we at the Jefferson Economic Council hear horror stories about the struggles that employers and families face with our health care system not only in Jefferson County but throughout the Denver metro region. Which is why we are so committed to getting reform right.
From the costs of recovering from an auto accident, to treatment for catastrophic illnesses to protecting a family when the wage-earner loses his or her job, the challenges are steep in Jefferson County and in every corner of Colorado.
As the Obama Administration and Congress, with the support of large and small business, unions, and others are working on addressing the problem, we are urging all the players to reject the so-called “government option” – a government run health plan.
The facts are clear: the government plan will squeeze out private plans that often work well, its costs will be astronomical and it will put one of the world’s highest quality health care at risk.
Starting down the path to the government controlling America’s healthcare system is a bad step, and history shows that it will be impossible to make a u-turn.
Government-run enterprises have the power to set prices artificially low and mask high costs. There is simply no way that private insurance, including health plans provided voluntarily by employers to more than 160 million Americans, can compete. It won’t be long before private plans are on the endangered list, and could easily become extinct.
In many ways, the government option is ignoring the fact that most Americans like the system of employer-provided coverage. A recent CNN poll shows more than eight in 10 of America’s employees are content. While they, like us, are troubled by the problems in the system and seek reform, they aren’t ready to surrender their employer-sponsored plans.
This radical overhaul is too broad, and coming at Americans too fast. We should focus deeply on the specific problems in the system, and build on the best practices that we know work. The likely outcome of creating a government plan is that Americans who now are happy with their employer-sponsored plan will be forced into the arms of the government option – and they won’t like it.
Here’s what we know from other countries. Long waits for basic tests. Bureaucrats deciding whether a patient can get a critically important treatment. And the incentives to do the research to create ground-breaking treatments disappear. Frustrated patients who want immediate care will swamp emergency rooms – making an already over-stretched sector of the health care system burdened even further.
In addition to these problems, taxpayers can expect a massive hit, with many estimates stressing that the reform now being considered by President Obama and Congress will cost $1 trillion or more. To pay the bill, lawmakers are considering a wide array of taxes on income, employee insurance benefits, alcohol, soda and many more.
If employer-sponsored coverage can manage to hang on, the costs on workers will rise. It’s a certainty that the government will follow the pattern of Medicare and Medicaid and pay modest fees to providers, including doctors. Without question, those providers will turn around and pass those costs onto Americans with private insurance.
For all this effort – targeting employer-sponsored plans, threatening the quality of American healthcare, soaring costs and wide-ranging tax hikes – the bottom line is that half of the uninsured are likely to remain uninsured even if the proposed plans are enacted.
Reform is what is needed. Demolishing the current system and replacing it with a government-run plan is not the prescription for our future. Common-sense and fiscal prudence is needed – and a government run plan offers neither.
Preston Gibson is President and CEO of the Jefferson Economic Council. The Council’s mission is to strengthen the economic vitality of Jefferson County by retaining, expanding, and attracting primary employment. EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
