Saturday, January 05, 2013

Davis: We cannot let government control health care

In his latest newsletter, Rep. Charlie Davis, R-Webb City, says we cannot afford to let government run health care.


Session begins next Wednesday, January 9th. It looks to be a very interesting year for us in the Missouri Legislature as we are starting to have to deal with obamacare implementation. I believe that this over intrusive governmental takeover of our healthcare system will break America but we in the Missouri legislature are going to continue to fight to stop any part of it that we can and lessen the effects of the parts that do happen. But believe me, we are going to continue to fight for right. 

The hot topic of the hour is Gov. Nixon's support for the expansion of Medicaid as outlined in President Obama's "Affordable" Care Act. I put "affordable" in quotation marks to emphasize there is nothing about this legislation that could be misconstrued as affordable. As all other entitlement programs have done over the years, the costs always are much greater than originally estimated, and the problems these programs promise to fix continue to plague society. 

I believe the governor thinks the expansion of Medicaid is the right thing to do, and I admire his desire to assist the approximately 161,000 Missourians who would be added to the Medicaid roles if this expansion were to occur. The problem is that Gov. Nixon has governed in a fairly fiscally conservative manner since becoming governor. The expansion of Medicaid is not fiscally conservative and not why he was re-elected. 71.1% of Missourians do not want obamacare and this past August stated that we do not want the executive branch or bureaucrats setting up the required exchanges. 

What we need is leadership willing to make tough decisions and promote solutions to societal problems that have a solid foundation rooted in the principles of life, liberty, freedom, personal responsibility and charity. We need a pro-economic growth agenda in order to create the jobs necessary for people to pick themselves up out of poverty and provide for themselves; not more entitlements. 

We as a state cannot afford to increase our Medicaid rolls without increasing the taxes on our citizens. The governor said that this could have a positive fiscal impact if we increase our rolls. The problem with that is that it requires us to take money from the federal government to pay for it. When was the last time any of us believed that the government has any money to spend? After 2 years, we as a state must start paying for it and the percentage gets higher every year. It also assumes that the federal government won’t change the rules, but they are known for doing just that on a daily basis. I want everyone to have health insurance but we need to make it affordable not let the government control it. 

3 comments:

Jim Lee said...

"71.1% of Missourians do not want obamacare"

The qualifier is left off...

71.1% of the 24% of eligible Missouri voters who voted in the August 2010 primary said they did not want Obamacare.

Which is about what? 14%?

Anonymous said...

Only 20 percent of Missourians voted for Obama on Nov. 6.

Anonymous said...

Charlie and the rest of the Missouri Republicans should realize that Obamacare is here to stay. It is the law of the land. Exchanges are coming whether they want them to or not. My question is why wouldn't they want to have a say in how the AFA is implemented, rather than set on the sidelines and let the Feds have a free rein in how it is set up in Missouri.