Responding to your message

 

Thank you for taking the time to contact my office about H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Your input is important to me, and I appreciate the time you took to share your thoughts. 

 

As you know, I voted against the bill. Among many other significant problems, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act takes $466 billion away from Medicare, which is predicted to be insolvent by 2017, and leverages it to create a new entitlement program rather than using it to make Medicare more solvent. The bill also expands Medicaid and sends $25 billion to states, a huge unfunded mandate that creates a very painful situation for Tennessee as well as other states. Tennessee officials believe the mandate will cost the state more than $750 million dollars between the 2014-2019 period. 

 

The bill fails to permanently fix the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) costing the tax payers $285 billion. The SGR formula has left every Congress since 2002 scrambling to prevent drastic pay cuts to Medicare providers, and I have continually expressed frustration that the health care reform bills before the Senate ignore the problem and continue to kick the can down the road. It's irresponsible and our seniors and the doctors who care for them deserve better. 

 

H.R. 3590 uses typical Washington budget gimmickry, taking ten years of new taxes to finance six years of spending, resulting in huge deficits in the next decades. Additionally, the new government-run long-term care insurance program called 'CLASS Act' would reduce deficits by $72 billion in the 10-year budget window but would begin to increase budget deficits in the decade following 2029. Eliminating these two gimmicks means the bill would be $189 billion in the red and puts the real cost of the bill at over a trillion dollars.

 

Studies are showing that Tennesseans who have health insurance will see their costs rise dramatically as a result of this bill. Certainly in a bill this size there are some components that will be positive, but overall, the core of this legislation is flawed. The real tragedy is that Washington has squandered the opportunity for true health care reform that actually lowers costs, rewards quality and innovation, and improves access for millions of Americans who lack coverage.

 

Thank you again for your letter. I hope you will continue to share your thoughts with me.

 

Sincerely,

Bob Corker
United States Senator