Senator Girod spells out many problems of Health Transformation bill

Senator Girod spells out many problems with Health Transformation bill HB 1580
Taxpayer Association of Oregon lawmaker update,

The Health Transformation bill, SB 1580, is the politicians’ latest attempt at Health Care Reform and it is no surprise that it is a mess and could make matters worse. SB 1580 increases regulations for health provider groups in Oregon. It is supposed to save taxpayer dollars but may indeed cost more. State Senator Fred Girod states the economics problem, “Basic economics says that this won’t work. The overall effect is throwing more money and adding additional government interference into a system that has a major market failure. The consumer has no reason not to consume and the supplier has no reason not to supply, therefor costs rise. Once Obama quits sending $500 million our way, the state will be stuck with a tab we cannot pay”.

Senator Girod further comments on the Health Transformation bill, “This has been sold to the people of Oregon as $239 million worth of cost savings. In actuality, it is $261 million of increased costs. This is a long term liability that we can ill afford.”

A greater debate over the Health Transformation bill (SB1580) has been the Senate Republican efforts at trying to include tort reform into the bill. Their plan is to limit patients’ awards to around $566,000.   Senator Girod States that tort reform, “[W]ould have helped reduce the liability for Medicaid providers.”

Tort reform can reduce costs – something that many of the health care reform ideas fail at achieving.  Here is what the Heritage Foundation says about tort reform, “I looked at the differences and various factors between the top 10 tort liability states and the 10 worst. After you crunch the numbers, labor earnings growth is 5 percent greater in the best tort states. Gross state product growth is 25 percent greater. With job growth, there is a huge difference: 57 percent greater job growth in the tort reform states.Next is state migration: a 232 percent difference. In other words, people are flocking to the states with the best tort climates and leaving the most repressive states.”

The bill now moves to the House.

Read the The Health Transformation bill, SB 1580 A-Engrossed here.