Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Republican Health Care Plan Offers Alternatives To Nationalized Health Insurance

The Republican Leadership in the House of Representatives is offering alternative legislation to H.R. 3962, Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s 1,990 page monstrosity that nationalizes health care, funds abortion and creates 111 new federal bureaucracies.

The Republican bill is 219 pages long. Read the Republican health care bill here: Republican substitute

The Republicans have issued the following summary of their legislation. We are reprinting the summary below:

Republicans’ Common-Sense Reforms Will LOWER HEALTH CARE COSTS

Americans want a step-by-step, common-sense approach to health care reform, not Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s costly, 1,990-page government takeover of our nation’s health care system. Republicans’ alternative solution focuses on lowering health care premiums for families and small businesses, increasing access to affordable, high-quality care, and promoting healthier lifestyles – without adding to the crushing debt Washington has  placed on our children and grandchildren. Following are the key elements of Republicans’ alternative plan:

  • Lowering health care premiums. The GOP plan will lower health care premiums for American families and small businesses, addressing Americans’ number-one priority for health care reform.

  • Establishing Universal Access Programs to guarantee access to affordable care for those with pre­existing conditions. The GOP plan creates Universal Access Programs that expand and reform high- risk pools and reinsurance programs to guarantee that all Americans, regardless of pre-existing conditions or past illnesses, have access to affordable care – while lowering costs for all Americans.

  • Ending junk lawsuits. The GOP plan would help end costly junk lawsuits and curb defensive medicine by enacting medical liability reforms modeled after the successful state laws of California and Texas.

  • Prevents insurers from unjustly cancelling a policy or instituting annual of lifetime spending caps. The GOP plan prohibits an insurer from cancelling a policy unless a person commits fraud or conceals material facts about a health condition. It also prohibits insurance plans from instituting annual or lifetime spending limits.

  • Encouraging Small Business Health Plans. The GOP plan gives small businesses the power to pool together and offer health care at lower prices, just as corporations and labor unions do.

  • Encouraging innovative state programs. The GOP plan rewards innovation by providing incentive payments to states that reduce premiums and the number of uninsured.

  • Allowing Americans to buy insurance across state lines. The GOP plan allows Americans to shop for coverage from coast to coast by allowing Americans living in one state to purchase insurance in another.

  • Codifying the Hyde Amendment. The GOP plan explicitly prohibits all federal funds, whether they are authorized funds or appropriated funds, from being used to pay for abortion.

  • Promoting healthier lifestyles. The GOP plan promotes prevention & wellness by giving employers greater flexibility to financially reward employees who adopt healthier lifestyles.

  • Enhancing Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). The GOP plan creates new incentives to save for future and long-term care needs by allowing qualified participants to use HSAs to pay premiums.

  • Allowing dependents to remain on their parents’ policies. The GOP plan encourages coverage of young adults on their parents’ insurance through age 25.

Scorecard: Speaker Pelosi’s Government Takeover vs. GOP Common-Sense Solutions

 

Speaker Pelosi’s Bill

GOP Alternative

Job Losses

Up to 5.5 million

0

Medicare Cuts

$500 billion

0

Tax Increases

$729.5 billion

0

TAKE ACTION:

  1. Urge your Representative to vote YES on the Stupak/Pitts amendment and NO on the passage of PelosiCare, ObamaCare Or HarryCare in the Senate. No legislation must be passed that creates a socialized health care system in America.
  2. Call the Capitol Hill Switchboard: 202-224-3121 and ask for your Representative’s office.
  3. Please forward this to ten friends!
  4. SUPPORT TVC’S IMPORTANT WORK!

Additional Resources:
Stop The Harry-Kari Of Our Health Care System
Attend A Rally Against ObamaCare (Government-Run Health Care)
Republicans Decloak Health Care Plan
30-46 Million Uninsured? No!