Senator Lamar Alexander, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, today issued the following statement on the Senate Democratic health care bill:
“Senator Reid’s bill is appropriate for the season: it’s the same turkey you didn’t like in August, and it’s not going to taste any better on Thanksgiving. Not much has changed. The bill still means higher premiums, it still means higher taxes, and it still cuts Medicare. It’s still 2,000 pages, and it still costs more than $2 trillion when fully implemented — and that doesn’t take into account a quarter-trillion-dollar doctors’ Medicare reimbursement.
And it still sends struggling states new Medicaid costs that will force states to raise taxes or damage higher education or both.
“The two most important new parts of the bill make it even worse. There’s a new payroll tax that is exactly the wrong medicine when there’s 10 percent unemployment. And there’s a new government-run insurance program into which millions of Americans will be pushed when their employers drop their health care coverage as a result of this bill.
“We need to start over. We should move step-by-step to reduce health care costs using the steps that Republicans have repeatedly proposed: let small businesses pool resources for health insurance; allow purchasing of health insurance across state lines; end junk lawsuits against doctors; eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse; expand health savings accounts; and promote wellness and prevention.”