Grim Diagnosis: A check-up on the federal health law
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October 26, 2010

(Washington, DC) - Today Drs. Coburn and Barrasso are releasing a new oversight report, Grim Diagnosis, examining the impact of the new federal health care law on American businesses, workers, and the economy.  Dr. Barrasso is scheduled to exclusively release the report on FOX News' Your World With Neil Cavuto today at 4pm.  The report shows how the federal health care overhaul threatens the economy and will eliminate jobs, reduce income, and increase costs.

Among some of the report's key findings are the following:

JOBS

• The law will eliminate about 800,000 jobs, and could erase even more
• Real income will be depressed for millions of Americans due to the law
• New penalties and costs discourage the hiring of young Americans-who already face the worst job market in a generation

SPENDING & DEFICITS

• The law could cause the deficit to balloon by more than half a trillion dollars over the coming decade
• Taxpayers could be faced to bailout a new program created in the health overhaul that even Democrats called a "Ponzi scheme"
• Since the passage of the health law, the alleged "deficit reduction" has already been nearly eliminated by Congressional spending

COSTS

• At a time of unprecedented state budget crises, states are facing  huge mandates that will burden state taxpayers with hundreds of billions of dollars in extra costs under the law
• Uncompensated care costs from care in ER will likely increase, and could get much worse
• Employers, already struggling with rising health care costs, are now facing costs that are increasing more quickly because of the new law

The Senate physicians' report, issued roughly 200-days after the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in March, comes after their previous oversight report, Bad Medicine <http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=722faf8b-a5be-40fd-a52b-9a98826c1592> , that marked the first 100-days of the law's enactment. As physician-legislators, Drs. Coburn and Barrasso will continue their responsibilities to monitor the law's impact on all Americans.

As they noted in Grim Diagnosis, "the overhaul that passed Congress this spring did not represent the real health reform Americans want and need" because "the new law focused on some of the symptoms in our health care system, but failed to address the underlying disease."  Based on their practice of medicine and experience caring for patients, they conclude that "real reform begins with replacing the new law with sensible provisions that will lower costs, increase patient control, reduce bureaucracy and government interference, and put affordable, high quality health coverage within the reach of every American."
 

Grim Diagnosis: A check-up on the federal health law
Download the PDF report