ICYMI: Rep. John Joyce: “Let’s get realistic about curing our health care system”
Congressman John Joyce (PA-13) today in The Hill published an op-ed outlining the problems with the new House Democrat Medicare-for-All bill, urging his colleagues across the aisle to instead to come to the table to discuss realistic bipartisan proposals to lower healthcare costs and strengthen the doctor patient relationship. Some highlights from the op-ed can be found below.
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Let's get realistic about curing our health care system
Rep. John Joyce
As a doctor, I ran for Congress because I have seen first-hand how ObamaCare has wreaked havoc on our health care system and caused premiums, deductibles and co-pays to skyrocket.
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After spending two months in office, however, it has become apparent that the leaders of the Democratic Party have no interest in a constructive discussion about how to improve our health care system.
Instead, Democratic presidential candidates have begun their race to the left, and they have abandoned any realistic health care positions back at the starting line. For Democrats, the needs of our patients have been replaced by internal polling data from Iowa and New Hampshire as the drivers of healthcare policy.
This type of thinking has spread to House Democrats as well, who last week unveiled one of the most extreme Medicare for All plans yet.
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First off, Medicare for All would cost around $32 trillion over the next decade, which would mean massive tax increases on hardworking Americans to fund the program. And with spending for the current Medicare program estimated to rise to $45 trillion over the next ten years, we are going have enough challenges keeping the promises that we've already made without asking taxpayers to pony up more of their hard earned money to do so.
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Even though Medicare for All relies on unrealistic and false promises, it is all we seem to hear about these days. But what about all the practical solutions that are getting drowned out?
Last week I co-sponsored legislation to permanently repeal the 2.3 percent medical device tax that was implemented because of ObamaCare. The cost of this levy was passed down to patients, and according to the Tax Foundation, it lowered health care research and development spending by $34 million in one year alone and was responsible for the loss of approximately 21,800 jobs from 2013 to 2015. Eliminating this misguided tax once and for all has bipartisan support, but we will only be able to do so if we continue to put a spotlight on the issue.
Other bipartisan proposals that will allow the doctor-patient relationship to be at the center of patient care should also receive more attention.
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Using health care as some sort of political football to divide the country is not going to help patients, working on commonsense compromises will.
As a physician, I always stress to my patients that only the treatment options that have a realistic chance at succeeding should be used. Democrats should heed that same advice in this case, and I look forward to partnering with them if they change their minds and get serious about curing our broken health care system.
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Read the full op-ed HERE.
13th District papers that would like to run the op-ed in full can do so after ten days. Rep. Joyce's office will reach out with a reminder when the ten day period of The Hill's exclusive rights to it concludes.
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