There was a better choice for health care

Illinois Rep. Mark Kirk, Republican candidate for Senate, outlines an alternative, highlights higher premiums, higher taxes, and job losses under the bill. And then these shockers:

Increasing the Debt of Illinois

Under the federal Medicaid program for the poor, states must pay half of all costs. As you know, the State of Illinois has one of the highest deficits of any state, totaling over $12 billion. Spending on the Illinois Medicaid program rose 65% from $8 billion in 2001 to $13 billion in 2008 to now cover 2.4 million people. Under the Senate Health Care bill, Illinois would have to cover an additional 400,000 people, adding an additional $1 billion to the state’s deficit over five years.

Health care under Medicaid is already deteriorating. Over 9,000 doctors in Illinois refuse to accept Medicaid patients (28% nationwide), in part because it takes Illinois over 100 days to pay for services.

Expansion of the IRS

About the only jobs created by the legislation would be at the IRS. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the IRS would need to hire over 16,000 people – over 700 just in Illinois -- to audit the American people and impose the new taxes and mandates of the bill. New IRS agents would verify if you have acceptable authority, fine you up to 2% of your income for failure to prove that you have purchased “minimum essential coverage,” confiscate your tax refund and conduct audits. Under the bill, nearly half of the new individual mandate taxes will be paid by Americans earning less than $66,150 for a family of four.

We can't afford this--and we have to fight this.