Have we ‘fixed’ U.S. healthcare?

The American people wanted reform. What they did not want was a 2,409 page bill that shatters a system working for almost two-thirds of the American people. What Congress should have done was tackle the one-third of Americans who needed help.
 
Insurance reform is where we could have made the greatest impact. We could have more responsibly eliminated the bias against patients with pre-existing conditions, better addressed prohibited rescissions except in cases of fraud, and ensured that states have well-designed high-risk pools.
 
Instead, we created a new entitlement that will saddle future generations with debt due to its unsustainable nature. Covering pre-existing conditions and allowing children to stay on their parent’s insurance could have been accomplished in stand-alone bills, and at a much lower cost.
 
Another area of reform that we should have addressed is medical liability. The success of Texas’ 2003 reforms is a model that could be used across the country. Texas has licensed over 15,000 new physicians and Texas hospitals have delivered almost $600 million in charity care. In addition, 82 counties have seen a net gain in ER doctors, including 26 that previously had none. Texas has shown what can really work.
 
As a result I have re-introduced the Medical Justice Act, H.R. 896. As Texas continues to lead the way, I hope the federal government can take what we have done in my home state, and put it to use across the country.
 
Finally, the current formula that Medicare uses to pay doctors is unstable, and a permanent fix is needed to ensure that seniors continue to have access to their doctors. The Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) was not even addressed in the healthcare law. Not only was there not a permanent solution, the SGR was compounded with the Independent Payment Advisory Board. Congress must undertake fixing the SGR, permanently, and the Senate and House must work together from the start.
 
We have seen that the new healthcare law is not what the American people want. Twenty-eight states have challenged the law in court, saying that it violates our Constitutional rights. Judge Vinson in Florida has declared the individual mandate in section 1501 unconstitutional, and that it cannot be “severed” from the law because of its centrality to the insurance market mandates.
 
In addition, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has handed out over 1,000 waivers to allow select companies, unions, and states to escape, at least temporarily, some of the burdensome new insurance rules the healthcare law has created. These waivers were only necessary because the administration knew millions of Americans would have lost their health coverage under the new law.
 
The bottom line is if the healthcare law fixed the existing problems, waivers would not be needed, states would not be challenging the law, and two-thirds of the population would be able to do as President Obama stated – “if you like your healthcare plan, you can keep your healthcare plan.”
 
Insurance reform, medical liability, and fixing the SGR are only three of the areas I believe should have been addressed if Congress and President Obama had been truly interested in reforming the healthcare system. What we have gained in surface area has been lost in depth and substance, and we are left with a rushed and ineffective law that will cost us more than just higher taxes.

Michael C. Burgess is a congressman representing Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives. He earned his medical degree from the University of Texas Medical School in Houston.