Key Vote NO on the Doc Fix and CHIP Reauthorization, H.R. 2

As one of our over 6.9 million FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to contact your representative and urge him or her to vote against H.R. 2, the “Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act”.

The Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) has been a problem since its inception, a misguided though noble attempt to slow down the growth of Medicare spending. A permanent repeal of the SGR does make sense compared to the annual exercise of delaying it, as Congress has done for over a decade.

However, keeping physician payments from being reduced has a real (and massive) cost – nearly $200 billion over 10 years – which Congress must account for. Instead this bill as written would increase the deficit by $141 billion over ten years. The minor structural tweaks to Medicare that would supposedly compensate for this spending do not kick in for several years, could easily be put off by future Congresses, and in any case fail stop an increase in deficits even after the ten-year budget window.

In addition, H.R. 2 includes a 2-year reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program – a health care entitlement for children that Congress should not reauthorize without major reforms. CHIP was effectively a foot in the door for a government takeover of health care after the failure of HillaryCare in the 1990’s and has a debatable-at-best track record that comes with a massive cost to taxpayers.

Thus, I hope that you’ll tell your representative to vote NO on the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, H.R. 2. We will count votes for this bill against their score in FreedomWorks’ Economic Freedom Scorecard for 2015. The Scorecard is used to determine eligibility for the FreedomFighter Award, which recognizes members of Congress with voting records that support economic freedom.
Sincerely,

Matt Kibbe
President,
FreedomWorks