Republicans Propose $700 Billion Giveaway To The Health Insurance Industry

Republicans have just announced the "Empower Patients First Act" which is their answer for health care reform. When the details of this plan are examined, it becomes clear that this would be a disaster for ordinary Americans while also being the health insurance industry's dream come true.

First, their plan would deregulate the insurance market and dismantle state-level consumer protections by allowing insurance giants to sell their plans nationwide without fear of oversight. Republicans usually claim to care about states rights, but this would completely undermine any regulations state governments have imposed on the insurance industry to protect their citizens. For example, state regulations requiring the most basic of necessary services such as breast cancer screenings, prostate cancer screenings, pre-natal care and hospital stays for new mothers will become immaterial if you bought your policy from another state. These regulations are there for a reason - to protect consumers. Companies will charter in states with scarce regulations solely so they can make more profit. With no reforms, the for-profit healthcare system will ALWAYS find ways to take advantage of people and that's exactly what this plan would encourage.

The Republicans also want to subsidize the private health insurance industry. Yeah, sure! They're making record profits so let's give them MORE money?! The idea is to give private health insurance subsidies to lower-income individuals and families which, of course, sounds like a good thing but this is done only with tax incentives which are practically worthless to the unemployed or those who can't currently afford health care. Also, subsidies in the absence of other reforms will simply increase the cost of health insurance for everybody else, leading to another inflationary spiral in health care. No ideas to reduce costs or improve competition, no protection for those with pre-existing conditions, no ways to cover those in poverty without insurance, no real impact on 50 million uninsured Americans. This is nothing but a $700 billion giveaway to the health insurance industry.

Finally, there is no comprehensive plan to pay for this Republicans healthcare reform plan. In order to fund subsidies, the bill calls for a 1% annual cut in Federal discretionary spending each year for the next decade, yielding about $120 billion. Although this would result in major across-the-board cuts in federal spending, it still leaves nearly $600 billion unfunded. Republicans say they can find "inefficiencies" in the health care system to cover that $600 billion shortfall, including malpractice reform, but fail to offer specifics. In fact this will add an extreme amount to the federal debt. Yet another fundamental Republican belief - fiscal responsibility - is thrown away for the corporate interests that fund their political campaigns.

This plan proves that Republicans are clearly on the side of this huge corporate interest and not with the American people. The fact that they want to go back to the failed policy of deregulation and that they even want to give those making record profits more federal money with no way to pay for it all shows their true nature and who they truly represent. This kind of deregulation has already proven itself to be a horrible idea in the failed finance industry which was eventually required to be bailed out by the federal government. Perhaps that is their goal for the insurance industry as well? First remove oversight and then bail them out?! I wouldn't put it past them.

They call this the "Empower Patients First Act" when it is obvious that it should be called the "Enrich Insurance Companies First Act." But hey, at least the Republicans finally have a plan!