Health Care

Share this Page |

UPDATED HEALTH CARE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

1. How many uninsured people are in the United States, who are they, and why are they uninsured?

Approximately 47 million people in the United States are uninsured for some period of time in a given year. However, this is an exaggerated number because:
10 million are not U.S. citizens.
10 million are only temporarily uninsured.
9 million have incomes that are over 300% of the federal poverty level ($66K for a family of four) but choose not to purchase insurance.
4 million already eligible for public programs that provide health insurance, but are not yet enrolled (Medicaid or SCHIP).

The actual uninsured population who are low-income citizens and do not qualify for other federal assistance is about 14 million people.

2. Will the health care reform plan increase my taxes?

The health care bill increases taxes by $570 billion. This figure is provided by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and is only calculated through 2019.

Individuals and small businesses will be forced to pay $65 billion in mandate tax penalties. Starting in 2014, all Americans will be required to purchase and maintain “qualified” health insurance. An individual will be forced to pay a tax penalty if they do not purchase health insurance deemed “qualified” by the federal government. This new tax penalty will be the greater of 2.5% of income or $695. Small business owners that do not provide “qualified” health insurance for their employees will be forced to pay a tax of $750 for each full-time employee.

Many health insurance group plans will face new taxes depending on their level of benefits. If the “coverage” or allowable health care costs covered under an individual health plan exceeds $10,200 or $27,500 in a family plan, plan administrators will pay a 40% tax on the coverage above those threshold levels. Although this tax doesn’t begin until 2018, the non-partisan CBO has estimated that it will create $32 billion in new taxes in the first two years.

Other taxes in the health care reform plan that will be passed on to patients:

Medical device manufacturers and other health care companies will pay $107 billion in new taxes which will result in increased costs for patients.
Hospitals will be forced to pay $210 billion in new taxes.
The health care bill raises the threshold for tax deductions for medical expenses and eliminates the use of pre-tax dollars from health savings accounts for certain medicines.

3. Is it constitutional for the government to force citizens to buy a private good?

Several state attorneys general have filed lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the health care bill.

The health care bill, for the first time, forces people to enter into a market when those people have specifically chosen NOT to participate in that market. In the past, the Supreme Court has upheld various federal laws under the "Commerce Clause," which gives Congress the power to regulate interstate "commerce." The question is whether Congress can use this authority to regulate people who have specifically chosen not to engage in commerce. If the Supreme Court upholds such a law, the whole concept of limited, enumerated powers of Congress in the Constitution will have been ignored.

4. Who is exempt from the health care bill? Will Members of Congress and federal employees participate in the exchanges?

Members of Congress and their Congressional staffs are required to participate in the new health insurance exchange. The President, Vice President, and many other federal employees are not required to participate in the exchange. I have co-sponsored H.R. 4951, which requires that the President, Vice President, and staff members of the Administration enroll in the government health insurance exchanges.

5. How will my TRICARE or TRICARE for Life be impacted?

There has been confusion over the past year regarding the future of TRICARE and other military health care programs. Provisions in H.R. 3590, the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” could affect beneficiaries by failing to classify certain VA health care plans as meeting the minimum coverage standards, exposing veterans to punitive new taxes under the bill.

To protect veterans and members of the military and their families, the House passed H.R. 4887, the “TRICARE Affirmation Act,” with my support. This bill explicitly states that beneficiaries of TRICARE and other Department of Defense nonappropriated fund (NAF) health benefits programs will meet the minimum requirements for individual health insurance mandated under H.R. 3590 and will not be required to purchase additional coverage. H.R. 4887 now awaits action by the Senate.

6. Why do you want to repeal the entire health care bill? Why can’t we make the current bill better?

People are rightfully concerned with the skyrocketing cost of health insurance and changes to the quality of their health care. Congress has a responsibility to reform health care by making health insurance more affordable for individuals, families and small businesses. However, the bill passed by Congress is not the answer.

I believe we need to repeal this bill before we deal with the disastrous consequences. While there are certain provisions in the bill that I could support individually, the fundamental structure and purpose of this bill is fatally flawed. A health care reform bill that increases taxes, raises premiums, cuts Medicare benefits, and ensures a government takeover of health care must be repealed. Recent polling demonstrates that the American people are adamantly opposed to the health care bill and wanted Congressional Democrats to start over rather than pass it.

The President promises that this bill will cut the deficit, increase insurance coverage, improve the quality of health care, control health care spending, reduce premiums, and maintain physician-patient relationships. But the President's claims are not backed up by the facts.
The President and Congressional Democrats could have developed a bipartisan bill that would have addressed the skyrocketing cost of health insurance and ensured that insurance is more accountable, accessible, and affordable. Instead the health care bill barely has the support of a majority in Congress, let alone the American people.

7. I have a pre-existing condition. Why are you trying to take away my opportunity to now get affordable health insurance?

I support programs that provide health insurance to individuals denied coverage by health insurers for pre-existing conditions. I co-sponsored legislation that increases funding for state-based programs providing health insurance to individuals unable to obtain affordable insurance from private insurers. This bill passed by Congress is a massive overreach of government control that will not address the core reform issues.

8. How will the health care reform impact my Medicare benefits?

The health care bill will cut Medicare spending by more than $450 billion over the next ten years. The consequences will be limited access to treatments and increased premiums.
Medicare Advantage funding will be cut by over $200 billion over the next ten years. This program will bear the most cuts of any Medicare program. Again, the consequences will be limited access to treatments and increased premiums. The Actuary at the Department of Health and Human Services said that the level of Medicare cuts in the health care bill was “unrealistic” and could jeopardize “access to care.”

Physicians are already burdened with an unfair reimbursement system that limits their ability to treat Medicare patients and threatens seniors' access to affordable health care. Over the next several decades, this health care bill will create more problems for Medicare than it will solve.

9. I have heard that the health care bill set up several decision-making panels, what are these and what authority do they have?

This bill created more than 100 new federal agencies, boards, councils, commissions, panels or programs that make health care decisions. The bill limits the rights of Americans to make their own health care decisions and instead gives federal employees in Washington, D.C. the power to make decisions.

10. Will taxpayers be forced to subsidize abortions under the new plan?

The health care legislation does not include language to protect a long-standing federal policy which excludes abortion coverage from government-funded health care plans. I voted to amend the bill to keep this policy, but the amendment was defeated. Without this explicit protection, the bill will provide taxpayer subsidies to private health plans that include abortion and leaves open the possibility of federally mandated coverage of abortion as an essential benefit.

The Executive Order issued by President Obama does not correct the pro-abortion provisions in the bill. For example, one provision could allow millions of taxpayer dollars directed to Community Health Centers and other federally funded primary health care providers to cover elective abortions under “comprehensive care” requirements. Only permanent, statutory language can prevent federal funding for abortion coverage through the government-regulated exchange, adequately protect the right of conscience for health care providers, and guarantee that private insurance companies are not mandated to cover abortion.

11. Does the health care plan provide insurance to illegal immigrants?

The health care bill’s verification mechanism to ensure that illegal immigrants do not get federal insurance subsidies or access to the health insurance exchange is not reliable for several reasons. First, it does not require applicants to present identification documents. In addition, the bill includes a glaring loophole that allows a future president to eliminate the verification requirement entirely “for the exchange and verification of information if the Secretary determines such modifications would reduce the administrative costs and burdens on the applicant.” The bill also contains a confidentiality provision that would bar letting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigate an illegal immigrant uncovered during the verification process.

12. What did Republicans do to reform health care when they were in charge? What reforms have you supported?

Republicans passed several bills that were signed into law when they were in the majority in Congress:

Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and Tax Incentives for Health Care Coverage
Republicans passed several proposals to make health care more affordable. We expanded tax incentives to purchase affordable health coverage, including the creation of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). More than 8 million people are enrolled in an HSA plan today. The Republican Congress also advanced policies to increase the portability of health insurance, privacy protections, and transparency of health care costs, setting the stage for greater adoption of electronic health records, something that will help produce better outcomes at lower costs.

Expansion of Community Health Centers
Republicans substantially increased funding for Community Health Centers, the safety net of providers for Americans who don't have access to primary health care in rural and urban areas.

Fighting Entitlement Program Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 included a series of legislative proposals to rein in government over-spending, streamline payment policies, and reduce waste and fraud in Medicare and Medicaid.

NIH Medical Research
Republicans successfully doubled the budget of the National Institutes of Health, which will help fund research to develop future medical breakthroughs.

House Republican Reforms
House Republicans also moved legislation that would expand opportunities for small businesses to band together to purchase high-quality health care for their employees at a more affordable price. House Republicans also passed medical liability reform legislation to eliminate expensive defensive medicine. Unfortunately these proposals were blocked from consideration in the Senate.

13. Does the health care plan address medical liability reform?

The health care bill enacted by Congress failed to contain any of the tort reforms that the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) concluded would reduce health care costs even though we know that the costs of litigation, insurance, and defensive medicine are passed on to the patient in the price of health care.

Frivolous lawsuits force physicians to practice defensive medicine and carry expensive malpractice insurance, the cost of which is passed on to patients. Defensive medicine is when doctors perform tests and prescribe medicines not because they’re necessary for health, but in order to avoid frivolous lawsuits that claim they didn’t do everything possible for the patient. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, defensive medicine adds between $70 billion to $126 billion to health care costs each year.

The CBO found that capping certain forms of lawsuit damages would result in $54 billion in savings. That could be used to provide health insurance for the uninsured without raising taxes on those who already have insurance policies. These uncapped lawsuit awards paid by insurance companies get passed on to patients as higher premiums.

That is why some states, including Texas, have rightly enacted tort reform to limit the amount of damages that can be awarded. As a result, more than 14,000 doctors set up new practices in the state, which means Texans pay less to have better health care and more options.

Even worse, the health care plan not only fails to include any of the tort reforms the CBO found would save costs, but it also contains a provision that explicitly allows trial lawyers to “opt-out” of any alternative liability system. That means that if their frivolous lawsuits are limited by an alternative system, they can simply “opt-out” of the alternative system and file in court, just like they always have.

If the President and Democrats in Congress are serious about reducing health care costs, rather than increasing taxes or rationing care, they need to address medical liability reform, which is one of the biggest sources of waste and added cost.

14. How will this bill impact my health insurance premiums?

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the recently passed bill will increase premiums for policyholders in the individual market (those who purchase insurance directly from insurance companies) by 10-15%. This estimate is based on increased enrollment and does not go as far as to include other new costs and taxes passed on to policyholders from other provisions in the bill.

15. Will I be able to keep my current insurance and doctors?

Despite the President’s pledge that, “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan” and “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor,” this bill will dramatically affect the health insurance plans of every American. The government-run health exchange combined with new federal authority to regulate the industry will force private insurance companies out of business. The analysis of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that at least 9 million Americans will be forced off of their current employer based health insurance onto the government run plan.

This bill massively expands federal decision-making power when it comes to health care and requires widespread industry changes that will certainly affect the health care benefits and options of many Americans. Physicians and practice groups have contacted my office detailing the difficult decision they face in analyzing whether they can continue to treat their existing patients and remain in business.