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Washington, Nov 10, 2009 - The following oped by Rep. Royce appeared in today's FlashReport:

The 2,032 page government takeover of healthcare which passed the House Saturday was aptly titled "The Worst Bill Ever" by the Wall Street Journal.  While there were as many reasons to oppose the bill as pages in the text, here are some of the most egregious.

It will cover illegal immigrants.

While the plan would require a Social Security number to qualify for taxpayer funded healthcare, we have known for years that our immigration laws continue to go unenforced and having a social security number does not verify citizenship. As the Social Security Administration Commissioner wrote in a September 2007 letter, "a social security number would not keep someone from fraudulently receiving coverage under Medicaid if they provided false identifying information."  The same will certainly be true under the Pelosi-plan, which means roughly 8.5 million illegal immigrants will be covered at the taxpayers' expense. 

It will fine and potentially imprison individuals without 'acceptable' insurance.

If an individual fails to maintain 'acceptable' health insurance coverage, they will be fined.  If that fine goes unpaid, one can face felony willful evasion punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years.

It will put the government between a patient and their doctor.

A newly created "Health Choices Commissioner" will be responsible for determining which doctors and hospitals can participate in the government-run plan and in the private plan networks.  Additionally, a "Comparative Effectiveness Research Commission" will decide which treatments are most effective, including the ability to deny coverage due to cost.

It will kill jobs.

For those small businesses that cannot afford to provide "government approved" coverage for their employees, the plan will impose an 8 percent payroll tax. This unnecessary tax is expected to generate $135 billion in revenue at the expense of small businesses; the backbone of the US economy.  According to some economists, the Pelosi plan will destroy as many as 5.5 million jobs over the next 10 years. 

It fails to address medical liability reform.

In an attempt to curtail frivolous medical lawsuits, the Republicans put forward an amendment to the bill which would have put the rest of the country on par with California's medical liability laws.  This effort would have enacted caps on non-economic damages and lawyers’ fees, encouraged speedy resolutions of claims and limited punitive damages.  According to the American Medical Association, American families spend an average of $2,000 every year in additional healthcare costs because of the unnecessary medical tests conducted to avoid frivolous lawsuits.  The Republican amendment would have reduced defensive medicine costs and brought down healthcare costs across the board, but it was rejected by a vote of 187-247.

It will compound an already dire fiscal situation. 

As the head of the Congressional Budget Office recently said our federal budget is already on an unsustainable path.  We expect budget deficits to hover around 8 percent of GDP for the foreseeable future.  We have $85.6 trillion in unfunded liabilities coming due for Medicare, Social Security (and Medicare Part D). 

This is before the Pelosi healthcare entitlement program. While the Democrats tout a $1.2 trillion price tag over ten years for the bill, they came to this number through budgetary gimmicks. Because the bill passed Saturday is front loaded with taxes and back-loaded with spending over the first ten years, the cost will be far higher.  Once the real spending kicks in (around 2014) the ten year outlook is around $2.6 trillion.  That number will only continue to grow as private competitors are undercut by the government run option and private plans are shifted to the government option.

Instead of enacting real reforms to increase competition and lower costs (like the medical liability reform amendment offered by Republicans), Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat leadership decided to pass legislation which asks small businesses and future generations to pay for a government takeover of our healthcare sector.   Hopefully the Senate will better understand the implications of this dreadful legislation and see to it that it never becomes law.