New Health Care Law Threatens National Security

In the spring, the president signed his signature legislation of his administration by enacting comprehensive health care legislation, which changed the very nature of health care in this country. The main focal point of the this new legislation was the expand care for millions of uninsured Americans; now we are seeing the unintended consequence of health care reform.

On Monday, Boeing, the largest employer of jobs in Seattle, Washington, and America’s number one exporter of manufacturing, has sent a letter to its non-union employee’s and is asking workers to pay more for their health care plan.

Boeing is the latest in a long list of major companies who have began to shift more of health care cost to its workers as a direct result of the signature issue and crowning accomplishment of President Obama’s first two years in office. Earlier, McDonald's had raised questions about whether a limited benefit plan that serves some 30,000 of its employees, would remain viable under the law. That prompted the administration to issue McDonald's a waiver from certain requirements under the law.

What the president failed to address in his approach to health care reform is how this would be paid for, for as we all know, you can’t get something for nothing. The current reform measure signed by the president does nothing to control cost and only adds another unfunded entitlement program to an already ballooning national debt.

As time passes we will see more ill effects of this health care reform legislation, and more businesses like Boeing will force workers to pay for the cost of their health care. Washington simply refuses to acknowledge that businesses have to be competitive with the competition or they will not be able to survive.

Too often Washington passes major legislation to curry favor with a limited group, as was the case with the Bush administrations prescription drug plan in 2003, and 2004. Now the Obama administration is doing exactly the same thing that he criticized the Bush administration from doing. Nothing in this reform measure control costs.

The president never included tort reform, prevention of insurance companies from competing across state lines, or any wellness into health care reform. Many of our health care problems are self inflicted, with two-thirds of Americans over weight and one-third obese. Most of the diseases which are preventable account for 70% of all health care spending. Unfortunately, under the president’s health care reform measure, none of these items were in it or even discussed.

All this has unintended consequences for Democrats and especially Senator Patty Murray, who is in a tough re-election fight in Washington State against challenger Dino Rossi. In a recent debate she commented that she supported health care legislation, and she helped write health care reform. Voters might want to hold her and other Democrats responsible for passing legislation that does nothing to control health care costs, stifles job creation, and adds billions to an already ballooning debt, which will now threaten the security of this country.

You can’t get something for nothing!