Pro: Spending billions to implement the law is senseless 

By KAY BAILEY HUTCHINSON

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has recently made speeches about his jobs and deficit plans. However, neither proposal addresses the major problem in the stagnant economy.

What the president is not talking about is the Obama health care reform law, which presents the greatest threat to job creation and our future fiscal sustainability.

This estimated $2.6 trillion legislation, with the far-reaching regulations and government mandates it includes, is causing havoc and uncertainty for states, businesses and American families.

Recently, a federal judge in Pennsylvania joined the growing number of federal judges and appellate courts that have struck down all or part of the health reform law.

So far, 28 states have sued the federal government, challenging the law’s constitutionality. The most recent ruling in this protracted legal battle marks another blow to an increasingly uncertain future for the law.

Regardless of the legal uncertainty surrounding the legislation, the administration continues to spend billions of dollars implementing a law that may ultimately be struck down by the Supreme Court.

Whether you support or oppose the law, it is fiscally irresponsible for the administration to forge ahead implementing this law, which runs the risk of being ruled unconstitutional.

Earlier this year I introduced the Save Our States Act to halt any further implementation of the law until a final judicial resolution has been reached by the Supreme Court.

Under the moratorium, no state government or small business would be forced by the federal government to spend any additional time or resources implementing or complying with this law until there is judicial resolution.

I have heard over and over again from small businesses in Texas that this law’s mandates and new regulations are the biggest disincentive to growing their businesses and hiring more employees.

Even as the law is mired in legal uncertainty, there is no question that its unpopularity and negative consequences have reached a pitch only a year and a half since its passage.

Businesses are experiencing unprecedented premium increases in order to continue providing insurance for their employees. And a widely circulated study by the McKinsey and Co. consulting firm estimates that as many as one in three businesses will drop their employee health insurance and opt to pay the law’s fine, forcing their employees to find “government-approved” insurance on their own.

It should be no surprise that the more people know about this law, the less they like it. A recent poll conducted by the Associated Press and the National Constitution Center found that 82 percent of Americans believe that the federal government should not have the power to require Americans to buy health care insurance.

While the administration and its allies clearly do not have legal certainty or public opinion on their side in this dispute, they remain undeterred.

So far, more than 6,000 pages of new regulations have been issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to implement health reform. These efforts are costing taxpayers on multiple fronts, in the form of billions and eventually trillions in deficit spending, higher taxes and more regulations.

The fact is, health care reform is scaring our small businesses and has effectively put a freeze on hiring.

We cannot wait any longer. It is critical for the administration to halt the proliferation of regulations based on this flawed law. Since it is doubtful that they will do so, I will push Congress to pass my legislation to stop them before the damage and cost is beyond repair.

• Hutchison is a Republican U.S. senator from Texas. Readers may write to her at: 284 Senate Russell Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510; website: www.hutchison.senate.gov.

Con: Withholding funding will derail badly needed reforms 

By ERIC R. WRIGHT

INDIANAPOLIS — The passage of the Affordable Care Act represents an important turning point for our health care system. The health industry is arguably one of, if not the, most powerful interest groups in Washington.

The fact that President Barack Obama and key congressional leaders were able to negotiate such a comprehensive health reform package with so many vested interests involved is nothing short of a miracle.

We are now nearly 18 months into implementation, and the health care industry and many states already have seized this historic opportunity and begun working on transforming our health system.

If Congress withholds the funding needed to fulfill the federal government’s new responsibilities under the ACA, it would — in all likelihood — seriously slow, or worse, stall the positive momentum we are beginning to see.

Such a decision would do nothing to heal our very serious health care woes and could easily backfire and make a bad situation even worse.

It may come as a surprise to some, but no one is entirely happy with the ACA. This may be the best thing about the new law.

To get the bill passed, every interest group had to give up something to get something. The result: the ACA represents a complex and delicate patchwork of reforms that together have the potential to restructure powerful, entrenched economic interests in ways that will improve access to health care for more Americans.

On the legal front, challenges to the law’s individual mandate of health insurance coverage have produced contradictory court rulings, and it is now nearly certain that the Supreme Court will need to weigh in on this critical question.

It is less clear, however, when the high court will offer a ruling or what the implications of any decision might have on the myriad of reforms outlined in the new law.

One thing is very clear: the wheels of reform are moving, and picking up speed because of the passage of the ACA.

While some argue that Mitt Romney, as governor of Massachusetts, started this current wave of reform, the ACA has provided other states, ranging from California to Vermont, an opening to launch major new initiatives to improve the accessibility and affordability of health insurance and to make other fundamental and long-overdue reforms.

The winds of change also are howling within the corridors of hospitals, health systems and doctors’ offices across the nation, as they are now taking important new steps to redesign care delivery systems to be more accountable and cost-effective.

Health insurers, medical device and pharmaceutical companies and new private enterprises are responding too with a wide-array of new products and services that will be essential in reducing the rising cost of care.

The success or failure of the ACA in improving the accessibility and quality of health care will depend, in large part, on the careful implementation of the remarkably intricate web of carefully negotiated changes across the public and private sectors.

The federal government must do its part to develop new regulations and make changes to existing programs, policies, and practices to support and reinforce what is happening in many states and across the health care industry. If Congress withholds funding, this will not be possible.

Virtually everyone agrees that fundamental change is needed. But changing our enormously complicated and exceptionally fragmented health care system has proven to be a monumental and elusive challenge.

Regardless of our political differences or any future Supreme Court decision, the ACA offers our nation a truly extraordinary and historic opportunity to make our country better.

Real and lasting change, though, will take time, resources and a commitment to do the hard work necessary to build a more effective health-care system that is truly accessible and affordable for all Americans.

• Wright is a professor of health policy and management and director of the Center for Health Policy in the Department of Public Health at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Readers may write him at the Center for Health Policy, 714 N. Senate Avenue, Suite 250, Indianapolis, Ind. 46202.