Six weeks ago, then Minority Leader John Boehner and several Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives published “A Pledge to America” which outlined a plan they proposed to implement in the event they gained control of Congress. In the aftermath of this week’s Republican landslide victory in the mid-term elections, it seems like a good time to review what that Plan said about health care. Here it is, verbatim:

A PLAN TO REPEAL AND REPLACE THE GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER OF HEALTH CARE
The American people wanted one thing out of health care reform: lower costs, which President Obama and Democrats in Washington promised, but did not deliver. Instead of expanding the size and scope of government with more debt, higher taxes, and burdensome mandates, Americans are calling for reforms that lower costs for families and small businesses, increase access to affordable, high-quality care and strengthen the doctor-patient relationship. We have a plan to do just that.

WHAT WE’RE UP AGAINST
The core promises Washington Democrats made to force the health care law through Congress have already been broken:

Jobs
Employers large and small coast-to-coast have announced that they are considering laying off employees or dropping their health care coverage in response to the new law, despite President Obama’s boast that it is also a jobs plan.

Costs
Both the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the chief actuary at the Obama Administration’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have confirmed that the new law fails to lower health care costs as promised.

Deficits and Debt
The Obama Administration’s Social Security and Medicare Trustees’ report confirms that the new law does little to address the nation’s growing fiscal crisis despite President Obama’s pledge that passing his plan constituted the “most important thing we can do” for the nation’s financial future.

Taxes
The new health care law includes at least a dozen violations of President Obama’s pledge not to raise taxes on middle-class families. The Obama administration has conceded that the ‘individual mandate’ at the heart of the new law is indeed a tax, a notion the president “absolutely” rejected last fall.

Seniors
The chief actuary at the Obama Administration’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has confirmed that the new law’s massive Medicare cuts will fall squarely on the backs of seniors, millions of whom will be forced off their current Medicare coverage.

If You Like It, You Can’t Keep It
The Obama Administration has been forced to acknowledge that the new law will force some 87 million Americans to drop their current coverage despite President Obama’s promise that Americans would be able to keep the coverage that they have.

Abortion
Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to using tax dollars to pay for abortion, and the executive order issued by President Obama in conjunction with congressional passage of the health care law is inadequate to ensure taxpayer funds are not used in this manner.

Instead of bringing the full weight of the government to bear in enforcing this job-killing health care law, Washington Democrats should listen to the American people and stand down.

OUR PLAN TO REPEAL THE JOB KILLING HEALTH CARE LAW AND PUT IN PLACE REAL REFORM
Repeal the Costly Health Care Takeover of 2010
Because the new health care law kills jobs, raises taxes, and increases the cost of health care, we will immediately take action to repeal this law.

Enact Medical Liability Reform
Skyrocketing medical liability insurance rates have distorted the practice of medicine, routinely forcing doctors to order costly and often unnecessary tests to protect themselves from lawsuits, often referred to as “defensive medicine.” We will enact common-sense medical liability reforms to lower costs, rein in junk lawsuits and curb defensive medicine. (more…)

Fifty-three percent of Americans reported cutting back on health care to save money in the past year, according to the most recent Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll. 

For 35% of them, this meant using home remedies and OTC drugs in lieu of a visit to the doctor.

The same percentage reported deferring dental care. Meanwhile, 21% said they chose not to fill a prescription, and 15% cut pills or skipped doses of prescription drugs.

The poll also revealed that 19% of respondents “experienced serious financial problems recently due to family medical bills.”

A shocking 13% indicate they’ve drawn down all or most of their savings paying off medical bills in the past year. The same number say health care bills make it hard to pay other bills. Twelve percent report being contacted by collection agencies.

Nearly 40% of respondents are very worried about their capacity to pay for needed health care, and that number bumps to 57% in the subset who think someone in the household might lose their job in the next 12 months.

A third of respondents with health coverage worry they will lose it.

“It’s clear that what the public wants most from health reform is relief from health care costs,” concluded Drew Altman, Kaiser’s President and CEO.

“Today’s economic anxieties have created a better starting point for health reform than we saw last time around,” he continued.

“More people see themselves benefiting from reform and fewer see themselves being negatively affected than we saw in the Clinton health reform debate.“

The Kaiser telephone interview survey was conducted from February 3-12 using a nationally representative sample of 1,204 adults.

California Democrat Pete Stark has indicated he plans to introduce legislation that would hasten adoption of electronic health records in the US. The bill includes financial incentives for providers to adopt EHR technology and penalties for those who fail to comply after a grace period. The penalties are likely to take the form of docked Medicare payments, according to Congressional Quarterly Today.

Stark is the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee. Congress has approved two similar bills, but they do not impose penalties on non-compliant providers. The first is a Senate bill (S 1693) introduced by Ed Kennedy (D-Mass) Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The second is a House bill (HR 6357) introduced by John Dingell (D-Mich), Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

It is late in the current legislative session. This means any delays marking up Stark’s bill, shepherding it through Ways and Means, or combining it with the Dingell bill will jeopardize its chances of being passed this year.