By Cong. John Culberson
Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON D.C. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) noted in its latest estimate that the cost of the Presidents health care plan has already increased by $500 billion. So in just one year the overall cost of this massive new entitlement has increased from a staggering $938 billion price tag to $1.445 trillion said Congressman John Culberson (R-TX) on the one year anniversary of Obamacare.
A year ago today President Obamas health care bill became law. Upon signing the bill the President claimed his signature initiative legislation would lower costs for families and for businesses and for the federal government.
He also stated that it would help reduce our deficit and that It is paid for and fiscally responsible.
One year later we have seen just the opposite. Obamacare has increased costs for families and businesses increased the deficit and increased government control over our health care options.
Unfortunately families are bearing the brunt of increased health care costs from the Presidents plan. Obamacare is full of costly mandates on insurance
companies which inevitably raises the price of insurance for families in the form of higher premiums.
BlueCross BlueShield and Celtic Insurance Company have attributed rate increases directly to Obamacare. Businesses are also burdened with new mandates including the $2000 per employee tax on businesses with more than 50 employees that fail to provide health insurance.
Small businesses that cannot afford to provide health coverage nor absorb the tax are likely to stop hiring. It doesnt take an economist to know that a hiring freeze is anathema to a struggling economy.
Only in its infancy Obamacare has added over 6500 pages of regulations to the Federal Register that the bureaucracy is struggling to implement.
In just one year the Obama Administration has issued over 1000 waivers to exempt entities from complying with its own law.
If nothing else these waivers are a tacit admission that the law is unworkable and needs to be repealed.
House conservatives have repeatedly voted to repeal Obamacare and have submitted their own proposals to lower health care costs by making insurance
tax deductible portable and available across state lines. We have proposed rooting out fraud and protecting doctors from frivolous lawsuits which can all be done without bankrupting America in the process.
Creating a new trillion dollar entitlement program when we are facing record debt and deficits is a prescription for economic calamity.
