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State Representative Tom Hackbarth
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-2439
For more information contact: Austin Bleess 651-296-5529
NEWS COLUMN
WHY RUIN A GOOD THING?
By State Rep. Tom Hackbarth,
District 48A
One of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle has recently offered an Amendment to the Health and Human Services bill which has many members on my side of the aisle, including myself, very worried. The Amendment would create a commission to find the “best” solution for health care. The thing that worries me is that the commission is not needed, because most of the members of the commission support Universal Health Care.
Universal Health Care means that you wouldn’t be able to choose your doctor, or your level of service. You would have a doctor assigned to you, and some person in St. Paul whom you’ve never met and doesn’t know your situation will tell you what treatments you can have. What kind of solution is that?
The Democrats are promoting Universal Health Care as their plan to help everyone. Minnesota currently has the lowest uninsured rate in the nation and according to a recently released United Health Group report. The report also declares Minnesota is the healthiest state in the nation. That should be enough evidence to show Minnesota has a good thing going.
The Democrats plan will have a price tag of $1.6 billion, and that’s just for next year. The projects show that by 2030 the states entire tax revenue would be consumed by such a health care plan. Where do you think that money will come from? Well they’ll just raise your taxes more. But just because you pay for health care with your taxes doesn’t mean you won’t be handed a bill when you visit the doctor. It would also require a premium payment based on your ability to pay. So you can pay double for your doctors’ visit!
Here’s a better solution. Let’s cut all of the mandates that are placed on the Health Insurance providers. The only things mandates do is raise the premium. A single guy who wants to buy health insurance shouldn’t have to pay for prenatal care; after all he won’t need that. Let’s take out the mandates, and let people pay for what they need.
Better yet, let’s open the Health Insurance market up to the free market. Currently only three companies can offer health insurance in Minnesota. There’s no competition, so they can charge whatever they want to. Let’s open that up. The more companies that can offer their product here the lower the cost will be and the better the product will be.
As President Reagan said "Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem." Let’s loosen the governments hold on health care so that everyone can afford it, and people can keep the high standard of care which they deserve.
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