and,yes... i referred her to this:
http://www.healthcareforalltexas.org/Myths.htmlhttp://www.cppp.org/research.php?aid=1017One year late: The state of Obama health care reform
Published: Sunday, March 20, 2011 12:37 AM CDT
Kay Bailey Hutchison
U.S. senator
One year ago this month, against the tide of public opinion and to the further detriment of our economy, the president signed into law the estimated 2.6 trillion dollar health care reform bill. Now, one year later, the reality of its effects on our economy and our health care system are staggering. The mounting consequences of the Obama health reform law make it increasingly clear that we must repeal and replace this damaging law.
As the administration forges ahead with implementation, there has been chaos and resistance at every turn. From the American people to small businesses to state governments, they have all balked at this law’s costly new provisions.
For the American people, the health reform law has already translated to higher health care costs, higher taxes, and more unsustainable government spending. Unfortunately, none of these developments are surprising, considering that this 2,000 page long bill contains over $500 billion in new taxes, cuts nearly $500 billion out of the Medicare program to fund a new government entitlement program, and puts the federal government between patients and their doctors.
With unemployment hovering near 9 percent and gas and food prices on the rise, American families are seeing their paychecks continue to shrink, as they struggle to pay for rising health care premiums driven by the law’s new regulations. If families don’t buy “government approved” health insurance for themselves and their family, they will be charged a fine.
For small businesses, the Obama health care reform law means unprecedented premium increases in order to provide coverage to their employees or tax increases if they do not offer employees “government approved” health insurance.
For state governments across the country grappling with massive budget shortfalls, the health reform law adds $118 billion in new unfunded mandates during the first 10 years of the law being enacted.
It should be no surprise that the majority of states believe this law is an unconstitutional overreach of the federal government. Twenty-eight states have sued the federal government, challenging the law’s constitutionality. Two federal judges have struck down all or parts of the law, and the Supreme Court is expected to issue its ruling later next year.
Even the administration has given us further reason to believe that this law is bad public policy, when they recently conceded to select companies and unions by issuing nearly 1,000 waivers providing exemptions from some of the costly new mandates created by this law. They even gave the entire state of Maine a waiver from parts of the law!
Sadly these effects on families, small business owners, and cash-strapped state governments are only a snap shot of what health reform one year later really looks like in America.
Although efforts in Congress to repeal the health care reform bill were narrowly defeated earlier this year, the fight is far from over. The fact remains: the Obama health law is fundamentally flawed and we must repeal it and replace it with the real commonsense reforms we need.
We must continue to work to dismantle the health care law one provision at a time, if necessary. One of our most pressing priorities in the coming months must be to protect individuals from the law’s mandates and employers from expensive new regulations that are stifling job creation.
I have introduced legislation to repeal the limitations on health saving accounts and flexible spending accounts to restore patients’ access to choose health care plans that suit their individual and family needs. Many families rely on their health savings accounts or flexible spending accounts to purchase over-the-counter medicine to help lower the cost of managing their health care. But a provision in the health care law now requires patients to go to the doctor to get a prescription for their over-the-counter medications first. This is yet another federal obstacle for working families to overcome.
While I continue to pursue all available avenues in Congress to repeal this law, the two federal judges who have ruled this law to be unconstitutional also give us good reason to be hopeful that one avenue for repeal could be accomplished through the Supreme Court. In the meantime, why should tens of billions of taxpayer dollars be spent to implement a measure that could be ruled unconstitutional?
As state governments wait in limbo for the Supreme Court to make its final ruling, an estimated 23.6 billion in taxpayer dollars could be wasted if the law is declared unconstitutional. My Save Our States Act would halt further implementation of this law so that we don’t spend any more taxpayer dollars implementing a bill that ultimately could be struck down by the highest court in the land.
One year later, it is increasingly clear that we need to enact commonsense solutions to reform health care in a way that does not add to our $14 trillion deficit, but rather brings down the rising costs of health care to ease the burden on American families and small businesses.
Kay Bailey Hutchison is the senior U.S. Senator from Texas.
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