Friday
Jun262009
Health Care Experts Offer Other Options For Health Care Reform
Friday, June 26, 2009 at 5:51PM
By Aaron Richardson-Talk Radio News Service
Michael Tanner, CATO’s Head of Health Care and Social Security Research is unhappy with the most recent draft of the bill that will eventually pave the way for health care reform in the U.S.
During a discussion today on Capitol Hill, Tanner voiced his opposition to many of the bills provisions such as: tax on employer provided insurance, a payroll tax hike, a income tax surcharge on people who make 250,000 dollars or more and the proposed soda and beer tax.
According to Tanner, those with less income will be specifically harmed by the beer and soda tax since those in that demographic tend to purchase these products with more frequency.
CATO’s Director for Health Policy Michael Cannon, who appeared alongside Tanner, suggested letting employees choose their insurance providers instead of employers. Cannon noted that this would result in higher salaries for workers.
“The $620 billion in employer premium contributions does not come out of the employers' pockets, it is actually from workers' wages," said Cannon.
"If the employers weren’t providing health benefits to those workers the employers would have to return that $4,000 or $9,000 dollars back to those workers and add it to their salaries” added Cannon.
Michael Tanner, CATO’s Head of Health Care and Social Security Research is unhappy with the most recent draft of the bill that will eventually pave the way for health care reform in the U.S.
During a discussion today on Capitol Hill, Tanner voiced his opposition to many of the bills provisions such as: tax on employer provided insurance, a payroll tax hike, a income tax surcharge on people who make 250,000 dollars or more and the proposed soda and beer tax.
According to Tanner, those with less income will be specifically harmed by the beer and soda tax since those in that demographic tend to purchase these products with more frequency.
CATO’s Director for Health Policy Michael Cannon, who appeared alongside Tanner, suggested letting employees choose their insurance providers instead of employers. Cannon noted that this would result in higher salaries for workers.
“The $620 billion in employer premium contributions does not come out of the employers' pockets, it is actually from workers' wages," said Cannon.
"If the employers weren’t providing health benefits to those workers the employers would have to return that $4,000 or $9,000 dollars back to those workers and add it to their salaries” added Cannon.
Opting-Out Would Be "Political Suicide" For States Says Health Care Analyst
Michael Cannon, Director of Health Policy Studies at the CATO Institute, said today that it would be "political suicide" for states to choose to opt-out of the public option plan.
Democrats in Congress, led by Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), are pushing for an opt-out provision within the public option, or government-run health insurance plan, as a way to demonstrate to states that they will not be forced to partake in the plan.
Referring to the public option plan as "Fannie Med," Cannon said that Reid and others are using the opt-out provision as a way of putting pressure on states to subscribe.
“The taxpayers in each state are going to have to be subsidizing Fannie Med. And what Governor or state official is going to say ‘I know your tax dollars are subsidizing this government program, but I’m not going to let you get your tax dollars back by participating in this program?’ That would be political suicide for state officials. And supporters of Fannie Med know it would be political suicide,” Cannon said.
Cannon argued that supporters of an opt-out provision are merely interested in finding way for the government to seize more control of the nation's healthcare system, and nothing more.
“They are counting on this to get their proposal through Congress and they know that it’s not going to inhibit the new government program’s ability to drive private insurers out of business,” Cannon said.
Cannon said even proponents of the public option plan are aware that it would crush competition in the marketplace, and echoed the theory that President Barack Obama favors the public option plan because it would lead to single-payer health insurance in the U.S.
“What they call public option is not really a public option. That’s a ruse,” he said.