Clinton-style health-care reform is utopian in nature and can best be described as a bold leap into the unknown, a hybrid of untested ideas and theories, dubious economic assumptions and wishful thinking. Let's not be fooled by the smoke and mirrors. The Clinton-style plans are flawed plans designed to buy and provide everything but then puts a cap on the budget (which sets up a system for lowest cost, lowest quality and health-care rationing).
According to the Congressional Budget Office, within three years of implementation, Clinton-style health-care reform will reach $740 billion per year and will be the single largest program in the federal budget. They also state it will require a 27 percent tax increase to fund such a massive program. If employer mandates are imposed, an estimated 3 million-plus jobs will be lost. Primarily the low-wage workers will be hit.As proposed, health-care reform is incompatible with federal debt reduction initiatives. Which is it going to be, deficit reduction or health-care reform and its $740 billion annual expenditures?
Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, has suggest a more simplistic approach to reform. He has proposed that health insurance be changed from employer groups to individual coverage. This change could be easily be performed by amending the tax code to allow individuals a tax deduction for what they spend on health insurance premiums and health care.
This proposal would allow portability, eliminate pre-existing coverage concerns, allow market force to function and would not require hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to administer. Under the Bennett plan, the decisions that affect a person's quality of life could be made by that individual, the family and the attending physician and not some government agency.
I am strongly opposed to health-care reform in which I must relinquish control and become dependent to government programs such as the plans that are being proposed by the Democrats. I will support a plan such as Bennett's that allows for freedom of choice even though it requires personal responsibility and accountability.
Paul Bagley
South Jordan