United Liberty

Rep. John Barrow (D-GA) explains his vote against ObamaCare:

Late Saturday night, the House of Representatives voted on H.R. 3962, the “Affordable Health Care for America Act.” Health care reform is one of the most critical issues facing this nation right now, and fixing the problem in a way that is sustainable over the long haul has to be one of our top priorities. I don’t think the bill that was before us does a good enough job of reaching that goal, and that’s why I couldn’t support it.
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Unfortunately, the bill does a very poor job of regulating the insurance industry. Most of the insurance reforms we desperately need to protect folks from being denied coverage because of preexisting conditions, or from having their policies cancelled when they get sick, won’t begin to kick in for another five years. The Medicare Part D “doughnut hole” won’t be closed for 10 years. And there is no mechanism in place to prevent the private insurance companies that currently cover over half of the people in the country from raising premiums at will, and plenty of incentives for them to squeeze even more money out of us while they still can.

Worst of all, the bill does not rein in overall health care spending. Last week I met with Doug Elmendorf, the Director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. He confirmed that this bill would actually increase the amount of money we as a nation spend on health care, and increase the federal government’s share of what we as a nation spend on health care, over the next two decades. If we don’t reverse these trends, paying the insurance companies more than we should pay for the service that they provide will be the least of our worries.

Barrow mentions better enforcement of contracts between the insured and the insurer, then I would agree with him. Otherwise, whenever “regulation” is mentioned, it immediately sends up a red flag.

As far as his mention of costs, the CBO reports have been conveniently ignored by Democrats and the myth of deficit reduction has been created.

Barrow made the right choice, I’m just not sure I agree with him on how reform should be undertaken.