Testimony
Testimony before Committee on Small Business
United States House of Representatives
Delivered on March 18, 2009
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:
My name is Robert E. Moffit. I am the Director of the Center for Health Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation. I previously served as a Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services during the Reagan Administration. The views that I express today are entirely my own, and should not be construed as representing the views of the Heritage Foundation, its officers or its Board of Trustees.
President Barack Obama has outlined an ambitious and far-reaching health care agenda, including major changes in the Medicare program. It should be noted that even before the President held his White House health care summit, the Congress had already enacted key elements of the President's health policy agenda. This includes the expansion of the State Children's' Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), estimated to cost approximately $65 billion over ten years. It also includes health provisions in the recently enacted "stimulus" legislation, including additional funding for Medicaid, COBRA, investments in health information technology, and the establishment of a research program for "comparative effectiveness" into different medical treatments and procedures, drugs and devices. Altogether the estimated 10 year cost of these initiatives amounts to $136 billion.
The President's Agenda In the President's submission, he is asking Congress to adopt a health care funding proposal to create a reserve fund for comprehensive health care reform that would amount to an estimated $634 billion over ten years. The objective of this proposal is to create systemic changes in the health care system that would lead to universal coverage and also to enact specific health care policies that would result in an annual reduction of $2500 in the typical American family's health insurance premium costs.....
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