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Obama health plan 'cripples' bipartisan effort, says Boehner

GOP leader: Proposal is a 'massive government takeover of health care'

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By Jack Torry, Cox News Service Updated 10:02 AM Tuesday, February 23, 2010

WASHINGTON — House Minority Leader John Boehner swiftly dismissed a revised White House plan on reforming health care, assailing it as “the same massive government takeover of health care’’ approved late last year by the Senate and House.

The West Chester Republican said the plan outlined Monday, Feb. 22, by President Barack Obama “crippled the credibility’’ of a scheduled televised bipartisan meeting Thursday between Obama and congressional leaders at Blair House, just across the street from the White House.

Although Boehner said in a statement that the summit “clearly has all the makings of a Democratic infomercial’’ on health care reform, he is expected to attend and outline the Republican health-care alternative.

Boehner’s sharp criticism prompted a testy response from White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, who told reporters that Republicans have “pushed back greatly on this notion that they’re the ‘party of no.’ If they’re not the ‘party of no,’ Thursday is a perfect venue to be the ‘party of yes.’ ’’

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, also seized on the opportunity to apply pressure on GOP lawmakers, saying that “while Republicans have not yet offered proposals’’ to expand coverage and reduce costs, he expressed the hope “they will use Thursday’s bipartisan health summit as an opportunity to bring constructive ideas to the table.’’

For more than a year, Boehner and his GOP colleagues have backed plans to limit financial damages from medical malpractice lawsuits and allow smaller companies to band together to find less expensive policies.

But the non-partisan Congressional Budget office has calculated while the GOP alternatives would reduce medical malpractice costs, by 2019 it would extend health insurance to just three million people, leaving 52 million non-elderly residents without coverage.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, criticized the Obama plan as “repackaged,’’ and complained that “rather than integrating common-sense solutions into a plan that all Americans can support, the White House is doubling down on their effort to create a government takeover of healthcare.”

Highlights listed in proposal

Affordability: Extends health insurance to 31 million Americans by providing the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history and reducing premiums for millions of consumers and small businesses.

Competition: Gives tens of millions of Americans the same insurance choices available to members of Congress.

Pre-existing conditions: Prevents insurance companies from refusing coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions or charging them more.

The budget: Reduces the deficit by $100 billion over the next decade, and by about $1 trillion in the second decade, by cutting waste, abuse and fraud in Medicare and Medicaid.

Government controls: Establishes a Health Insurance Rate Authority with the power to deny or limit substantial premium increases.

Excise tax: Helps to bridge the gap between the Senate and House bills by making changes to an excise tax on the most expensive health care plans. Obama would delay the tax until 2018 and raise the premium threshold from $23,000 to $27,500 annually for a family plan.

Source: The White House

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