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How do you pay for a one-size-fits-all,
government-run health care system? Through the largest tax increase in
American history. But that’s not the only consequence of the
single-payer health care proposal backed by Democrats in Congress. Here
are additional costs of a federal government takeover of your health
care:
Elimination of private health insurance for more than
158 million Americans, forcing them into a government-run system.
The end of Medicare as we know it.
Delays in access to care and increased wait times.
Path to the elimination of the VA.
We
need to know exactly how this Democrat proposal would impact American
family budgets, which is why I have called for a hearing to examine the
implications of Medicare for All.
Even left-leaning think tanks
like the Urban Institute have stated that a Medicare for All proposal
could cost taxpayers as much as $32 trillion over ten years, and one
Democratic presidential candidate acknowledged that the proposal would
end private and employer sponsored health care.
Unfortunately,
Democrats have chosen “Medicare for All” to lead their health care
agenda rather than what the American people would like Congress to
focus on: out-of-control health care costs.
The fact of the
matter is that, for too many Americans, health insurance coverage
exists solely on paper because health care costs and high deductibles
are putting family budgets in peril.
In the last Congress, I led
the effort on several proposals to reduce health care costs for
consumers, particularly costs related to prescription drugs and
treatments. We passed into law legislation that modernized the Food and
Drug Administration (FDA), which helped streamline the approval
process for lower-cost generic alternatives. Last year the FDA approved
the most generic drugs in history, including a generic EpiPen that
gives patients living with severe allergies a much-needed lower-cost
option.
I also fought hard to ban the use of so-called “gag
clauses,” which restrict a pharmacist’s ability to inform a patient
that their drug would be cheaper if they paid out of pocket than if
they paid through their insurance. This will help ensure that
pharmacists can fully communicate pricing options to patients in need.
We also opened up the hearing aid market to competition, bring innovation and lower costs to consumers.
Tackling
the high cost of health care is a priority for families in Oregon and
across the country, and it is a priority for me in Congress. This is
what we should be working across the aisle toward in Congress, not a
partisan, single-payer health care proposal that puts patient choice in
the back seat, the federal government in the driver seat, and a
historic tax increase on the backs of middle-class American families.
It is an honor to represent you in the U.S. Congress.
Best regards, Greg Walden
U.S. Representative
Oregon’s Second District