Opinion: Weekly remarks: It’s Saturday, so Obama and the GOP argue healthcare

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I recently heard from a small business owner from New Jersey who wrote that he employs eight people and provides health insurance for all of them. But his policy goes up at least 20 percent each year, and today, it costs almost $1,400 per family per month – his highest business expense besides his employees’ salaries. He’s already had to let two of them go, and he may be forced to eliminate health insurance altogether.

He wrote, simply: “I am not looking for free health care, I would just like to get my premiums reduced enough to be able to afford it.”

Day after day, I hear from people just like him. Workers worried they may lose their coverage if they become too sick, or lose their job, or change jobs. Families who fear they may not be able to get insurance, or change insurance, if someone in their family has a pre-existing condition. And small business owners trying to make a living and do right by the people they employ.

These are the mom and pop stores and restaurants, beauty shops and construction companies that support families and sustain communities. They’re the tiny start-ups with big ideas, hoping to....

...become the next Google or Apple or HP. And, as shown in a new report released today by the White House Council of Economic Advisers, right now they are getting crushed by skyrocketing health care costs.

Because they lack the bargaining power that large businesses have and face higher administrative costs per person, small businesses pay up to 18 percent more for the very same health insurance plans – costs that eat into their profits and get passed on to their employees.

As a result, small businesses are much less likely to offer health insurance. Those that do tend to have less generous plans. In a recent survey, one third of small businesses reported cutting benefits. Many have dropped coverage altogether. And many have shed jobs, or shut their doors entirely.

This is unsustainable, it’s unacceptable, and it’s going to change when I sign health insurance reform into law. Under the reform plans in Congress, small businesses will be able to purchase health insurance through an “insurance exchange,” a marketplace where they can compare the price, quality and services of a wide variety of plans, many of which will provide better coverage at lower costs than the plans they have now. They can then pick the one that works best for them and their employees.

Small businesses that choose to insure their employees will also receive a tax credit to help them pay for it. If a small business chooses not to provide coverage, its employees can purchase high quality, affordable coverage through the insurance exchange on their own. Low-income workers – folks who are more likely to be working at small businesses – will qualify for a subsidy to help them cover the costs.

And no matter how you get your insurance, insurance companies will no longer be allowed to deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition. They won’t be able to drop your coverage if you get too sick or lose your job or change jobs. And we’ll limit the amount your insurance company can force you to pay out of your own pocket.

To view the new report and learn more about how health insurance reform will help small businesses, go to WhiteHouse.gov, and send us your questions and comments – we’ll answer as many of them as we can later this week.

Over the past few months, I’ve been pushing hard to make sure we finally address the need for health insurance reform, which has been deferred year after year, decade after decade. And today, after a lot of hard work in Congress, we are closer than ever before to finally passing reform that will reduce costs, expand coverage, and provide more choices for our families and businesses.

It has taken months to reach this point, and once this legislation passes, we’ll need to move thoughtfully and deliberately to implement these reforms over a period of several years. That is why I feel such a sense of urgency about moving this process forward.

Now I know there are those who are urging us to delay reform. And some of them have actually admitted that this is a tactic designed to stop any reform at all. Some have even suggested that, regardless of its merits, health care reform should be stopped as a way to inflict political damage on my Administration. I’ll leave it to them to explain that to the American people.

What I’m concerned about is the damage that’s being done right now to the health of our families, the success of our businesses, and the long-term fiscal stability of our government. I’m concerned about hard working folks who want nothing more than the security that comes with knowing they can get the care they need, when they need it.

I’m concerned about the small business owners who are asking for nothing more than a chance to seize their piece of the American Dream. I’m concerned about our children and grandchildren who will be saddled with deficits that will continue piling up year after year unless we pass reform.

This debate is not a political game for these Americans, and they cannot afford to keep waiting for reform. We owe it to them to finally get it done – and to get it done this year. Thank you. ###

This is Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers from Washington state, vice-chair of the House Republican Conference.

Like millions of parents, the health of my young son is our family’s top priority. When he’s sick, my husband and I take him to the doctor and expect the doctor not to just do something, but to do the right thing to help our son get better.

This is the same philosophy I’ve brought to the ongoing health care debate in Washington, DC. Some politicians – including the President and Democratic leaders in Congress – are demanding that we do something to change our system.

I believe it’s much more important to do the right thing, which means reducing skyrocketing health care costs while protecting patients ability to choose the right treatments.

Unfortunately, the Democrats’ health care plan – crafted largely behind closed doors – isn’t the right thing. It’s a prescription for disaster – one that will put Washington bureaucrats in charge of your family’s personal medical decisions.

Medical decisions that are some of the most personal decisions you’ll ever make. As a mother, I want to make those decisions for my son with a doctor we choose. Anything else is unacceptable.

Also unacceptable is how much this will cost you and your family. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the Democrats’ proposal will drive health care costs higher than ever.

The agency also warns that millions will be forced off their current coverage under the Democrats’ plan, even though they continue making the discredited claim that if you like your plan, you can keep it.

Millions of seniors will lose their health care choices too, because the Democrats’ plan cuts Medicare, making it more difficult in rural areas across the country – like mine in eastern Washington – for seniors to obtain the coverage they need. The House Democrats’ plan also will add $239 billion to our deficit – $239 billion more tacked onto the tab we’re passing along to our children and grandchildren.

Families, seniors, and future generations will not be alone in struggling with this bill’s costs. America’s small businesses will pay a steep price as well. Because the Democrats’ plan is bankrolled by a small business tax, more jobs will evaporate.

We’ve lost more than three million jobs since the beginning of the year and Americans have every right to ask, “Where are the jobs?” According to the National Federation of Independent Business, the Democrats’ plan will destroy a million more small business jobs.

And according to a methodology developed by the President’s own senior economic advisor, the Democrats’ government takeover of health care will cost at least 4.7 million jobs over the next 10 years.

Because of these extraordinary costs to families, small businesses, and future generations, alarm bells are sounding across the country. One Democratic governor recently expressed concern with the bill’s cost—at a trillion dollars or more. Another called it ‘the mother of all unfunded mandates.

Republicans have offered to help make a truly bipartisan plan that will improve the health of Americans, but Democrats have not wanted our help.

Republicans want to seize this opportunity to make health care more affordable. In the House of Representatives, we’ve outlined an alternative that reduces costs by rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse and reining in junk lawsuits that cost families millions each year in higher premiums.

Our plan lets small businesses purchase health insurance for employees at a lower cost, and for those who are uninsured now, it offers affordable choices. It reforms regulations so insurance companies compete for your business and you can shop around for the best coverage and price.

And under our plan, if you like your current health care coverage, you can keep it – no questions asked.

Finally, our plan encourages Americans to take advantage of preventive medicine and wellness programs. In the end, our real goal isn’t just to have medical coverage, but to have healthy families.

Our reforms will lower health care costs for you and your family. They won’t increase taxes on small businesses, and they won’t saddle future generations with hundreds of billions more in debt. Thank you for listening. ###

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