Foster should listen to
ideas on health care reform

Last month, a group of concerned citizens showed up at one of U.S. Rep. Bill Foster’s neighborhood office hours to ask about the up-and-coming health bill. And there is plenty to be concerned about. For example, the vague language of the bill, the possibility of government being involved in our lives as we have never experienced before and probably a more important question: How are we going to pay for this?

If you look at the programs run by the government, the unfunded liabilities are enormous. Unfunded liabilities are what taxpayers would need to pay today for future expenses. As of 2007, each household in the U.S. is on the hook for $255,280 for Medicare’s unfunded liabilities alone.

Add Social Security, and the number jumps to $299,531! This is more than the value of most people’s total net worth! And now we’re going to add on health care for everyone?

And another question, health care for whom? Looking at the “Overview of the Uninsured in the United States” published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, we can see the demographics and really understand who the uninsured are: 27 percent of the uninsured make more than three times the poverty level, and 11 percent make five times the poverty level. Even the Department of HHS admits, “Those with incomes above 300 percent of poverty should generally find employer insurance affordable.”

Breaking it down by age group, 21 percent are ages 17 and younger, making them eligible for programs such as the State Children Health Insurance Program. And by citizenship, 21 percent are foreign-born, non-U.S. citizens.

I have a couple of suggestions to deal with this problem. Tax breaks for privately purchased insurance. Portability of insurance if there is a loss of employment, with a restructuring option, so COBRA costs can be lowered. I’m even for allowing insurance companies to compete across state lines without the government option crowding out private insurance.

I would have been more than willing to tell Rep. Foster about my questions and ideas. However, he was in Israel on a “fact-finding mission.” Maybe Rep. Foster can make a house call now that he’s back.

Cody McCubbin, chairman, Kane County Young Republicans