Real Prescription for Health Care Reform

For all the liberal talk of universal health care, relatively few words have been devoted to the universal costs of such a plan. Obviously, ensuring that every American has health care is a worthy goal, but surely there's a more effective way of achieving it than asking taxpayers to foot the multi-billion dollar burden for a bureaucratic-driven scheme. Under one of the Democrats' major proposals, Sen. Max Baucus's (D-Mont.) plan to expand the SCHIP program, roughly four million Americans would be guaranteed health insurance, but millions more would be forced to pay for it through a string of federal tax hikes. While the majority's plan spends more and covers less, Senators Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) have devised a plan that would increase the number of people who would receive coverage by 20 million over the liberals' plan without spending a penny more than we pay now. To encourage more people to find their own health care, the Every American Insured Act would offer new incentives for people to find health coverage, including tax credits that could total up to $5,400 per family and $2,160 per person to help cover the costs. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, this "budget-neutral" approach would help insure 24 million people in the next decade six times what liberals promise under Baucus's bill. However, as Bob Moffit of the Heritage Foundations points out, notice which approach the Senate leadership is pushing "the least effective and costliest option available." I commend these Senate conservatives for working within the system to find a solution that makes health care affordable without vast government intrusion or expense.