In a letter to Ways and Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI), the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirmed that the much publicized savings proposals offered to the White House by several leading health care groups fall woefully short of their promised $2 trillion target.   In the letter, CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf wrote that, “only a subset of the initiatives could result in… Read more

Ways and Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI) today highlighted a non-partisan analysisof the government-run plan being debated by the Senate Finance Committee. The study examined two possible versions for a government-run plan. The first was modeled after the Federal Health Employee Benefit Plan (FEHBP) offered to federal employees, including Members of Congress and their staff, and the… Read more

Over the past several decades, our nation has built the finest health-care system in the world. From birth to death we value and care for life. Surgeons can perform life-saving heart surgery on a child that is still in utero. Expert trauma doctors can save the life of a mother who was badly hurt in a car crash. And end-of-life specialists can provide compassionate palliative care to… Read more

"Eroding employer-sponsored insurance with a government-run health insurance plan might be a good idea to Howard Dean, but it certainly can’t be good for employees and their families," said Ways & Means Ranking Member Dave Camp. "What will happen to the 132 million Americans who currently have health insurance through their employer?  Why won't they get to keep their health… Read more

If you want a good example of the wide gulf between Democrats’ rhetoric on health care and the real world implications of their policy proposals, you need look no further than the issue of prevention and wellness. President Obama and Democrats have made cost control central to their health care push, and a key part of their argument has been that we have to encourage people to live… Read more

The Washington Post recently reported that an “employer mandate,” proposed by many Democrats as a way to pay for health reform, could “raise $300 billion over a 10-year period.” This massive new tax would devastate the economy and put millions of Americans out of work.   Using the same methodology developed by Dr. Christina Romer, Chair of the Council on Economic Advisors, and Jared… Read more

As Washington debates health reform, many politicians seem to have forgotten what the whole debate is about — patients being able to get good care from their doctors at a reasonable price. Too often, people are denied access to the doctor of their choice, especially as fewer and fewer doctors accept patients with Medicare and Medicaid — the government’s current healthcare… Read more

Congressional Democrats will soon put forward their legislative proposals for reforming health care. Should they succeed, tens of millions of Americans will potentially be joining a new public insurance program and the federal government will increasingly be involved in treatment decisions.Not long ago, I would have applauded this type of government expansion. Born and raised in Canada, I… Read more

WASHINGTON – The three top Republican members of the House Education and Labor, Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means committees today asked the respective chairmen to hold bipartisan hearings on the health care reform legislation from which Democrats have excluded their Republican counterparts. U.S. Reps. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., ranking member of Education and Labor, Joe… Read more

Ways and Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI) today highlighted data from a 2008 Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) report showing more than 90 percent of seniors enrolled in the government-run Medicare program are enrolled in additional health care coverage. “Supporters of government-run health insurance think federal bureaucrats can do a good job designing and operating a… Read more