Do Republicans Have a Health Plan? Part 2
During President Obama’s give and take with House Republicans meeting in Baltimore on Friday, he encountered U.S. Rep. Tom Price (R-Roswell) who is one of the GOP’s point people on health care reform. Price has campaigned at Town Hall meetings and other gatherings around Georgia suggesting that millions more people could become insured at a minimal cost to taxpayers by attempting more market-based reforms. But there is no substantive evidence — certainly not anything from the Congressional Budget Office or any other independent analysis — that the market reforms Price and Republicans propose will make a significant dent in the number of uninsured. No doubt it would be cheaper for taxpayers, but it wouldn’t effectively deal with the growing number of workers who have lost insurance coverage. That’s why we appear to be at a stalemate in the negotiations for a bipartisan bill. The Republicans simply have not presented a plan that amounts to a comprehensive approach to either health insurance or health care reform.
The New York Times has a fact check posting online now that deals with Obama’s extraordinary exchange with House Republicans and provides some interesting background on what Price and his GOP colleagues have claimed as their “better plan” for health care reform.
– mike king
