Barrow: Fixing health care will take more than this

Late Saturday night, the House of Representatives voted on H.R. 3962, the "Affordable Health Care for America Act." Health care reform is one of the most critical issues facing this nation right now, and fixing the problem in a way that is sustainable over the long haul has to be one of our top priorities. I don't think the bill that was before us does a good enough job of reaching that goal, and that's why I couldn't support it.

Health care reform must accomplish three goals: We need to regulate the health insurance industry so that insurance companies can't continue to take advantage of their customers. We need to help those who can't afford insurance to buy the coverage they need. And we need to slow the rate of growth in health care spending over the long run.

The house bill does a fair job of helping people buy the insurance they can't afford now, but at a higher cost than would be necessary if we adopted tougher regulations for the health insurance industry.

Unfortunately, the bill does a very poor job of regulating the insurance industry. Most of the insurance reforms we desperately need to protect folks from being denied coverage because of preexisting conditions, or from having their policies cancelled when they get sick, won't begin to kick in for another five years. The Medicare Part D "doughnut hole" won't be closed for 10 years. And there is no mechanism in place to prevent the private insurance companies that currently cover over half of the people in the country from raising premiums at will, and plenty of incentives for them to squeeze even more money out of us while they still can.

Worst of all, the bill does not rein in overall health care spending. Last week I met with Doug Elmendorf, the Director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. He confirmed that this bill would actually increase the amount of money we as a nation spend on health care, and increase the federal government's share of what we as a nation spend on health care, over the next two decades. If we don't reverse these trends, paying the insurance companies more than we should pay for the service that they provide will be the least of our worries.

Fortunately, this last round is just that - just one more round in an ongoing process. The Senate still needs to pass its bill, and then work will begin to find compromise between the House and Senate versions of this legislation. I'm confident that we can get something better. The fact is, we must get something better, or we will get nothing at all. And we need all the reform - and all the relief - we can get.

John Barrow represents Georgia's 12th Congressional District.