By Travis Martinez - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service
A new report issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has revealed that the Democratically-backed Senate health care bill would have a negative impact on the cost, accessibility and quality of the American health care system, according to Sen. Mike Johannns (R-Neb.).
“This is a roundhouse blow to the Senate health care bill,” said Johanns in a news conference Friday.
In response to a letter written by Johanns and other Republicans, Richard Foster, the Chief Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a branch of HHS, released a report which found that under the bill, the proposed reductions in Medicare payment updates for providers, the actions of the Independent Medicare Advisory Board and the excise tax on high-cost employer-sponsored health insurance would have significant downward impacts on future health care cost growth rates.
Johanns said that the White House has misleadingly used the report to garner support for the bill when in fact, he said, the report should be viewed as being damaging to the chances that legislation will pass.
Johanns read a key section of the report which states the following: “During 2010-2019, however, these effects would be outweighed by the increased costs associated with the expansions of health insurance coverage. Also, the longer-term viability of the Medicare update reductions is doubtful. Other provisions, such as comparative effectiveness research, are estimated to have relatively small effect on expenditure growth rates.”
Linda Douglass, Communications Director for the White House's Office of Health Reform, responded to Johanns' remarks on Friday, posting the following statement in defense of the bill to the White House's
website: "They cherry-picked total expenditures at a singular, fixed point in time – ignoring the overall rate of cost growth, the impact on Medicare and America’s seniors, and the fact that millions of more Americans will be covered."
Article originally appeared on Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media (http://www.talkradionews.com/).
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