GOP Offers 230-Page Health Care Proposal

House Republicans Offer Draft That Focuses on Lower Costs but not Expanding Coverage

(CBS/AP)  After months spent criticizing Democrats' health overhaul plans, House Republicans have produced a draft proposal of their own. It's much shorter and focuses on bringing down costs rather than extending coverage to nearly all Americans.

A 230-page draft was obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press. A spokeswoman for Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said changes were still being made before the bill would be finalized in time to offer as an alternative when Democrats begin floor debate on their bill, possibly at the end of this week.

The bill leaves out a number of the key features of the Democrats' 1,990-page legislation, such as new requirements for employers to insure their employees and for nearly all Americans to purchase insurance. It also doesn't block insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing health conditions, as Democrats would do.

Instead, the Republican plan increases incentives for people to use health savings accounts, caps non-economic jury awards in medical malpractice cases at $250,000, provides various incentives to states with the aim of driving down premium costs and allows health insurance to be sold across state lines.

"As Leader Boehner has made clear, our proposal will focus on the No. 1 concern of the American people - reducing health care costs, and we do it at a price tag our nation can afford," said spokeswoman Antonia Ferrier, though Republicans have not said how much their bill would cost.

"Our proposal will help struggling middle-class families and small businesses by increasing access to affordable, high-quality health care," Ferrier said.

Special Report: Health Care Reform

Democrats immediately dismissed the Republican plan as insubstantial.

The GOP alternative "does little to provide security and stability to all Americans, doesn't provide insurance availability for all Americans, does little to expand access to coverage," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters.

"Ours is vastly superior and we think the American public will think that," Hoyer said.

The GOP draft bill obtained by The AP was dated Monday.

House Democrats, meanwhile, were working overtime to put the finishing touches on their 10-year, $1.2 trillion bill, which they released last week. Leaders were trying to resolve lingering concerns over language to bar federal funding of abortions and ensure that illegal immigrants don't receive government health benefits.

The Republican bill includes a permanent ban on any federal funding for abortions except in cases of rape, incest or threat to the life of the mother, stronger language than the Democratic bill.

Republicans have been using the Internet to offer a united front against the Democrats' bill.

The Republican caucus is using the social networking site Amplify to highlight portions of the bill with which they take issue. On their page healthcaretruth.amplify.com, Republican users share the actual text of the bill up for discussion and leave a comment. Other users can leave their own comments or share the content using Twitter, Facebook, Digg and other social networking tools.

Hoyer predicted Tuesday that Democrats would vote within the week to pass a historic health care remake.

"I'm confident of prevailing and I'm confident of prevailing before Veterans Day" - next Wednesday, Nov. 11, Hoyer told reporters. "I am confident that we are going to pass this bill."

Across the Capitol, senators are waiting to see the final language and price tag on a health bill that Majority Leader Harry Reid and a few other top officials wrote in secret. It's not clear when those details will be available and Reid, D-Nev., may not be able to begin debate on the issue until the week before Thanksgiving.

[stryker54]

you people are a bunch of sheep. The Dems are going to BK this country trying to give everyone health ins. Repubs have it right this time. Sorry

[stuart-johns2]

Republicans SUCK bigtime! Who cares what they have to propose. Everyone who knows anything about the woes of healthcare in this country knows full well that no 230 page bill is nearly sufficient to address those problems.

This is just another gimmick from the republican extremists. I'll bet it goes absolutely nowhere like all the other fantasy proposals they claim to have submitted.

What a freakin' joke! REPUBLICANS JUST SUCK!!

[hungry1968-17]

What a joke this "bill" is!!

It takes a TERRIBLE system and, amazingly, MAKES IT WORSE!!!

[hungry1968-17]

The very first person Stossel "interviews", is Sally Pipes of the "Pacific Research Institute".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Research_Institute

"The Pacific Research Institute (PRI) or officially the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, is a prominent California-based conservative think tank founded in 1979 whose stated vision is the promotion of "the principles of individual freedom and personal responsibility. The Institute believes these principles are best encouraged through policies that emphasize a free economy, private initiative, and limited government." The Pacific Research Institute has associated with other think-tanks like the American Enterprise Institute, The Heritage Foundation, The Fraser Institute, and the Cato Institute."


It's obvious that like ALL conservatives, she is out to do what is best for big business, and NOT what's best for America or her citizens.

Sorry - try again.

[bc-1948]

What a joke this plan is.. Took them a year to even get this much in writing - and it does nothing to bring down costs. I don't mind the limit on non-economic losses, but look at the states that have limits. Their insurance premiums haven't come down.

[toldyouso21]

In other words the GOP mantra remains: MORE OF THE SAME. I'm not happy with the Dem plan, but the answer certainly is NOT continue the same old status quo set up that we presently have.

[watervliet]

GOP WHY NOW.... TRYING TO HOLD OUT FOR THE SAKE OF POLITICS. MOVE ON AND WORK TOGETHER. YOU MIGHT STILL HAVE SOME HOPE FOR WINNING AN ELECTIONS...

[troutfishyman]

Too late. They had 8 years to do this, if they were serious about it.

[BuddyBeanbags]

Sounds like a lot of NOthing to me.

[ttaoin2010]

Do you really trust either party? The stimulus plan worked really good, right? Cash for clunkers saved alot of money, right? The bailout of Chrysler and GM worked real good, right? Medicare and Social security are not going bankrupt, right?

And this healthcare overhaul will only cost 1.2 trillion dollars?

Yeah, right.

[bc-1948]

That is 1.2 trillion over 10 years - assuming there is no cost savings to be gained anywhere. Over that same time frame - Americans will spend over 32 trillion on health care unless changes are made - and we would still have a system out of control - pre-existing conditions and cancellations for those that develop health issues. I'll take my chances on the 1.2 trillion -

No, I am not someone wanting something for nothing. I pay for my own insurance - which is costing $21,000 this year. But, how many Americans could pay that amount?

[jsd330]

Until something is done with health care provider costs, the cost of health care is going to keep going up. And I have seen nothing in these bills that does that. These bills are all about going after one part, the evil insurance companies. Not the medical suppliers, hospitals, doctors. How many hospitals post their prices for procedures, unless you have to pay for it yourself and get an itemized bill, you have no idea what the costs are. So neither the Dums or Repigs are addressing the whole problem.

[chonder2]

"As minority leader Boner has made clear before,our Republican proposal will focus on the number 1 concerns of the healthcare industry who we work for.As for the the unfortunate families that have been bankrupted by healthcare policies that don't work, all we can say is, "die quickly" so you won't run up a large bill".

[bobbyduck1]

Finally proof that the Gross Old Pigs want to not only maintain the status quo, but they want to go further to increase the insurance companies' profit my capping lawsuit payouts etc. Oh and allowing them to cross state lines, so immediately all the insorance companies will relocate to the state with the most company-friendly, patient-ugly rules...where they can buy the judicial elections the easiest...

That way, the insurance companies can deny any claim and there is a much smaller limit to what they have to pay the family of the deceased who they were supposed to be there for. So it's not just the status quo, it makes it worse for everyone except big insurance.

Of course, since big insurance now virtually owns the GOP that they bought, what else would anyone expect?

Oh and waiting this long to bring it out, just to muddy the issues as the real plan is beginning to firm up for debate.

Obstructionist dissemblers who hate America and Americans, that's all that's left in the GOP.....