John Boehner’s criticisms fall on deaf ears

In his radio address, Republican Representative John Boehner criticized the Democrat’s health-care reform plan. He rightly points out its high cost, unacceptable government involvement, and potential to actually make things worse. Boehner mentioned Republican ideas that are often discussed, but quickly rejected by the Democrats: Buy insurance accross state lines, allow organizations and business to pool their resources, and enact tort reform.

As someone who is employed by a small business, I can certainly see the value in having the ability to pool with other companies. Many states are dominated by just one or two private insurers, so opening competition would likely reduce costs and increase choices. Of course, the Democrats also agree there is a need to ensure competition. The difference is that Democrats want competition to come from a government option. This would eventually bankrupt private insurers, since they wouldn’t be competing on a level playing field. If this occurred, we would essentially be stuck with an unofficial single-payer system. Interesting way of sneaking it in through the back door, don’t you think?

Finally, we have tort reform, which could save up to $54 billion over a ten year period. If the goal is to reduce health costs, wouldn’t reducing the costs paid by doctors help? It certainly would, but of course, money saved by doctors and patients is money lost by the trial lawyers, who are big donors to the Democratic party.

The Republicans are offering solid ideas to reduce costs at little or no cost to taxpayers, while limiting government intrusion. It’s unfortunate they didn’t raise these ideas when they were in power and could have made these changes a reality.