Elaine Parker, Dr. Tom Price: Georgia Senate runoffs -- The future of health care in America is on the ballot
Sens. Perdue and Loeffler need to be sent back to Congress
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The future of health care in America is on the ballot in Georgia on Tuesday. Physicians and the small business community must unite to share how one-party rule in Washington will not only sabotage health care for millions of Americans but will act as a ball and chain weighing down the U.S. economy.
It’s critical that Republicans maintain control of the Senate so that the incoming administration cannot push through a radical health care agenda.
Sens. Perdue and Loeffler need to be sent back to Congress.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Given carte blanche, President-elect Biden and his allies would double down on an already broken system.
Biden supports strengthening and expanding ObamaCare—which has left Americans with fewer health care choices as insurers are slowly squeezed out of the market.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}More than half of counties in the country have access to two or fewer insurer options on the exchanges. And without healthy competition among providers, costs will continue to be artificially high.
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What do patients receive in return for higher costs and fewer choices? Suboptimal care. Because of ObamaCare regulations—which are packed into more than 11,000 pages within the Affordable Care Act—physicians are slaves to paperwork and compliance.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Putting ObamaCare on steroids will only make a bad situation worse.
Look no further than our northern neighbor or ally across the pond for a peek into what government-controlled health care looks like. The waitlists to receive health care in the U.K. and Canada stretch into the millions and the queue time to see a specialist, for example, can be up to seven times as long compared to the U.S. In short, it’s not an outcome we want to mimic.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The bloated U.S. health care system—pumped full of bureaucracy, middlemen and opaque pricing schemes—siphons more than $3.5 trillion away from the economy every year. That’s roughly $11,000 per person and amounts to nearly one-fifth of the U.S. gross domestic product. And under a Biden administration with no guardrails, that number would only grow and taxpayers broadly would become increasingly responsible to cover the costs.
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While the degree of health care spending should reflect the critical— and literally lifesaving—role of services provided by medical professionals, waste should not be tolerated.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}By streamlining the health care system and utilizing the free market and transparency to push prices down, consumers will have more money to spend on other priorities—a financial reset that will ripple throughout the economy and benefit all Americans. The savings could be used to buy a house, pay for college or even invest in a small business.
Rather than inject more government into health care, Sens. Perdue and Loeffler understand we need less. In fact, the two lawmakers recently co-sponsored a Senate resolution that would do just that and provide Americans with personalized health care at lower costs. All while patients with preexisting conditions are protected. The plan mirrors an already released reform framework called Healthcare for You.
A divided government often gets a bad rap because it can create gridlock. But from another perspective, it simply means lawmakers are forced to only consider policies that receive strong bipartisan support while leaving the others on ice.
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Georgians have an opportunity to make that a reality in Washington and create a bulwark against a radical health care agenda that will leave patients behind and the economy on crutches.
The choice couldn’t be more clear.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Tom Price, M.D., is a former U.S .Secretary of Health and Human Services.