Roll Call
By Rep. Bill Cassidy
March 8, 2010

“…Supporters of the president’s plan … prize a Congressional Budget Office report showing that 31 million uninsured Americans gain access to coverage under his bill.

However, supporters of this proposal avoid discussing the CBO’s projection that it increases the cost of health insurance. They also avoid the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services report estimating ‘that total national health expenditures under this bill would increase by … $234 billion’ over 10 years.

Likewise, Republicans highlight a CBO report showing that the House GOP bill will reduce insurance premiums by 10 percent. In turn, Democrats criticize the GOP plan because it extends coverage to fewer Americans than their bill…

Which sentence makes sense?

(A) Health care is inaccessible because it is unaffordable.

(B) Health care is unaffordable because it is inaccessible.

Clearly (A), health care is inaccessible because it is unaffordable. The reverse is nonsensical.

Therein lies the problem with the president’s plan. It attempts to provide access without addressing cost…

As a physician who has treated uninsured patients at a public hospital for 20 years, I applaud the president’s goals. Unfortunately, as economists at the CBO and the CMS explain, his plan fails to achieve them.

The key to expanding access is lowering costs. The key to lowering costs is empowering patients…

Costs are spiraling out of control because the consumer has no power or incentive to control them. The closest most patients come to price is the $15 or $20 copay…

To correct this, health care reform must realign incentives to encourage value-conscious decisions. Congress can do this by expanding the use of health savings accounts and making health care pricing transparent…

The Kaiser Family Foundation found that HSAs are 30 percent cheaper than traditional insurance policies with similar benefits, that 27 percent of those currently covered by HSAs were previously uninsured and that those with HSAs use preventive services as frequently as those with traditional insurance policies…

Additionally, to unleash the full cost-controlling power of HSAs, Congress should eliminate barriers to transparency in health care pricing. This would spur competition by subjecting the health care industry to the market forces that decrease costs and increase quality in every other sector of the economy.

Patients, armed with HSAs and empowered by medical transparency, will drive down costs by demanding higher quality care for less. As costs fall, health care becomes more accessible…

To lower costs, empower patients.”

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