Today’s Health Care Check-Up: — August 18, 1999

Is Congress Serious About Cutting Taxes?

The House of Representatives appears to be involved in a classic case of "the one hand not knowing what the other is doing."

Before the House left Washington, DC for the August recess, it passed a much-touted tax cut for families. Amazingly, when the House returns to Washington in September, it will likely consider health care legislation that would impose a new "health care tax" on American families.

The Dingell-Norwood bill – which would subject employers who voluntarily sponsor health benefit plans for their employees to costly, expanded lawsuits – will have a dramatic effect on health care costs. Dingell-Norwood contains many of the same big-government mandates found in the Kennedy-Dingell "Patients Bill of Rights," which the Congressional Budget Office estimated would increase costs by 6.1 percent. This translates into a $350 "health care tax" on families, many of whom are already struggling to afford health insurance.

If Congress is serious about cutting taxes, it should not pass health care reform legislation that increases families’ health care costs.