Harvard Professor On ObamaCare
Martin Feldstein, a professor of economics at Harvard University and president emeritus of the nonprofit National Bureau of Economic Research, was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from 1982 to 1984.
For the 85 percent of Americans who already have health insurance, the Obama health plan is bad news. It means higher taxes, less health care and no protection if they lose their current insurance because of unemployment or early retirement.
President Obama’s primary goal is to extend formal health insurance to those low-income individuals who are currently uninsured despite the nearly $300-billion-a-year Medicaid program. Doing so the Obama way would cost more than $1 trillion over the next 10 years. There surely must be better and less costly ways to improve the health and health care of that low-income group.
Although the president claims he can finance the enormous increase in costs by raising taxes only on high-income individuals, tax experts know that this won’t work. Experience shows that raising the top income-tax rate from 35 percent today to more than 45 percent — the effect of adding the proposed health surcharge to the increase resulting from letting the Bush tax cuts expire for high-income taxpayers — would change the behavior of high-income individuals in ways that would shrink their taxable incomes and therefore produce less revenue. The result would be larger deficits and higher taxes on the middle class. Because of the unprecedented deficits forecast for the next decade, this is definitely not a time to start a major new spending program.
A second key goal of the Obama health plan is to slow the growth of health-care spending. The president’s budget calls explicitly for cutting Medicare to help pay for the expanded benefits for low-income individuals. But the administration’s goal is bigger than that. It is to cut dramatically the amount of health care that we all consume.
ad_iconA recent report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers claims that the government can cut the projected level of health…
My favorite Harvard Economist,Greg Mankiw puts it this way:
I tend to distrust power unchecked by competition. This makes me particularly suspect of federal policies that take a strong role in directing private decisions. I am much more willing to have state and local governments exercise power in a variety of ways than for the federal government to undertake similar actions. I can more easily move to another state or town than to another nation. (I am not good with languages.)
Most private organizations have some competitors, and this fact makes me more comfortable interacting with them. If Harvard is a bad employer, I can move to Princeton or Yale, and this knowledge keeps Harvard in line. To be sure, we need a government-run court system to enforce contracts, prevent fraud, and preserve honest competition. But it is fundamentally competition among private organizations that I trust.
This philosophical inclination most likely influences my views of the healthcare debate. The more power a centralized government authority asserts, the more worried I am that the power will be misused either purposefully or, more likely, because of some well-intentioned but mistaken social theory. I prefer reforms that set up rules of the game but end up with power over key decisions as decentralized as possible.
Now please call and write your Congressperson and Senators and tell them what you think.
Contact Dodd
Contact Lieberman
Contact Courtney
Tips on how to write to Congress:
What to include in a letter and how to send it
But if you are going to write, how do you do it? Visit your representative’s website and look for a “Contact” page. You’ll always find either an email address or, more commonly, a form to fill out.
Congressional staffers say the following things are important to making your message influential: including your name, address, and ZIP code so the staff can verify you are a constituent of the Member of Congress, referencing specific legislation rather than a general issue by bill number and title, talking about the impact of the bill on the district or state, and your own reason for supporting or opposing the bill. While 90 percent of Congressional staff thought these items were helpful, less than 68 percent of staff thought personal stories were helpful. One well-respected organization recommends being: personalized, short, targeted, and informative.
I received a reply from Senator Joe. Why don’t we all write Senator Joe and compare responses? I think Joe’s on board with the plan.
July 27, 2009
Mr. Robert Clarke
Dear Mr. Clarke:
Thank you for contacting me to express your concerns regarding health care reform efforts. I appreciate your taking the time to share your thoughts with me, and I hear and understand your concerns when it comes to health care reform.
Americans today are faced with greater uncertainty than ever before when it comes to their health needs. These concerns often focus around rising medical costs, access to coverage, and quality of care. With more than 45 million uninsured Americans and health care spending levels that exceed any in the world, our current health care system is unsustainable and one where we reward quantity over quality. The need for health care reform has been evident for quite some time. We cannot afford to wait any longer to provide Americans with the high-quality, affordable health care they deserve, even though doing so will require making some difficult decisions.
As you may know, various health plans have begun to emerge from Congress, both in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. These initial plans outline key objectives that President Obama has stressed as essential elements to any health care reform plan that might cross his desk. The President’s plan for health care reform addresses the need for protection of a patient’s choice of provider and health plan, cost reduction, preventive care, health systems modernization, and long-term care and services. While the plans that have been discussed thus far in Congress largely reflect the important objectives set forth by the President, final legislation has yet to be approved by the committees that retain jurisdiction over health care reform.
I will continue to work with my colleagues on a bipartisan basis to resolve the remaining issues that are key to reaching a comprehensive final proposal. A broad coalition is needed when addressing an issue as large, and as important for our nation’s citizens, as health care reform. While, in general, I would prefer not to see a public plan option because of cost concerns and the possibility that it could potentially prevent the formation of the coalition that will be necessary to pass reform, I am very open to all options that have been laid on the table. I am hopeful that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will come together to achieve meaningful health care reform that expands coverage, reduces costs, and improves the quality of care in our nation.
Please rest assured that I will keep your concerns in mind as we move forward with this important work. I hope you continue to visit my website at http://lieberman.senate.gov for updated news about my work on behalf of Connecticut and the nation. Please contact me if you have any additional questions or comments about our work in Congress.
Sincerely,
Joseph I. Lieberman
UNITED STATES SENATOR
JIL:vdh
A reply from Senator Dodd,
Dear Friend, Thank you for contacting my office. My staff and I are reviewing your e-mail and will get back to you shortly. In the meantime, please sign up for the Dodd Digest, my e-newsletter. I’ll be e-mailing these updates to let you know about the work I’m doing on behalf of our state and our nation. Please go to my website, Dodd.Senate.Gov, to sign up. You’ll be hearing from me soon. Chris- Please note, due to the high volume of mail I receive, I am only able to respond to residents of Connecticut.
Representative JOSEPH COURTNEY speaks!
Dear Mr. Clarke,
Thank you for contacting me regarding health care reform. I appreciate your comments and having the benefit of your views.
After decades of the status quo, there is no doubt that Americans need access to affordable, stable and quality health care coverage. I feel so strongly about this important cause that when I took office as your Congressman in 2007, I promised not to accept the taxpayer subsidized Congressional health insurance plan, a benefit offered to all Members of Congress, until Americans had access to the same access to affordable and quality care. To this day, I have kept that promise and have not enrolled in the Congressional health plan – and will not do so until my constituents have the reform that will provide them the stable, quality health care coverage they can afford.
In Connecticut, we have seen first hand the urgent need for health care reform. In early June, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Connecticut issued a proposal to increase premium rates in their individual insurance plans by up to 32 percent. The size of increase will be unaffordable for many in Connecticut and force many out of their current coverage, and that is why I so strongly opposed this misguided proposal. But beyond the immediate impact of this increase, Anthem’s rate hike is a clear example of why reform of our health care system is so urgently needed. For too long, lack of competition in health insurance has led to a consolidation of the market in which only a few major insurers dominate, leaving Connecticut families susceptible to these kinds of unreasonable requests.
That is one of the many reasons why President Obama and Congress have joined together to work on long overdue reforms to our health care system. On July 14, 2009, the America’s Affordable Health Choices Act (H.R. 3200), legislation to overhaul our health care system, was introduced in the House of Representatives. This bill, which comes after it was publicly available since June 19, 2009 and the issue of health care reform has been the subject of countless hearings in Congress, outlines six pillars of reform with the general goal of expanding insurance coverage and lowering overall health care cost. The bill focuses on the expansion of insurance coverage and choice, affordability of care, shared cost responsibilities, prevention and wellness, investments in a robust health care workforce, and cost containment.
Individuals and families in eastern Connecticut will benefit from lowered costs, expanded coverage, greater choice of care, and stability of coverage for them and their families. That means more than simply having a health care plan – it means having the piece of mind that you have coverage that puts you and your family first, and focuses on keeping you healthy, will not threaten your family’s finances, and will be there when you need it.
The legislation will allow you to keep your insurance that you currently have if you like it and it meets the needs of you and your family. For those without coverage, or insufficient coverage, the legislation will create more options to ensure access to affordable care. It will also ensure that you and your doctors are making personal health decisions, not insurance companies. This legislation also prioritizes health and wellness by eliminating all co-pays for preventative care that saves lives and money.
In addition, an estimated 42 million Americans are denied health care coverage due to a pre-existing health condition – such as heart disease, diabetes, prior cesarean sections and even old sports injuries. Also included in H.R. 3200 are long overdue insurance market reforms that will remove pre-existing condition exclusions in health insurance markets. In both the 110th and 111th Congresses, I introduced legislation to eliminate the practice of pre-existing condition exclusions, and am pleased that these provisions are included in the bill under consideration in the House. Removal of pre-existing condition exclusions in health insurance markets is necessary with improving access and quality of coverage for the uninsured, and must be a key part of any bill passed by Congress.
You may have heard some of the many misleading claims made about the American’s Affordable Health Choices Act. To help address through some of the concerns constituents like you are sharing with me about the bill, I have put together a website, http://www.courtney.house.gov/choice, listing some commonly asked questions about the legislation and resources to learn more about it. I hope you find it useful in gaining a better understanding of this bill and learning the truth behind some of the myths aimed at detailing health care reform.
Should you have any additional comments or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact me in the future. For more information on my views on other issues or to see what I have been working on in Congress, please feel free to visit my official website at http://www.house.gov/courtney and sign up for my e-newsletter.
Sincerely,
JOSEPH COURTNEY
Member of Congress
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