E.+Persuasive+Research+Essay

**English 11 1B** **1/21/2011**
 * Patrick Wittle**

**__ HEATHCARE REFORM ESSAY __**

** Everyone is going to die! While people are alive, however, most individuals want to have a good quality of life and good health care. For several decades the issue of health care in America has been one great debate. Now with this recent health care reform law, Congress is taking money from all kinds of different businesses, putting them near and into bankruptcy. This health care reform is killing America’s economy, because it burdens America’s businesses, forces people to buy health insurance, and it adds trillions to the national debt. **

** At a time when the American economy is trying to recover from the greatest economic setback since the Great Depression, the new healthcare reform burdens American businesses with new taxes, fees and administrative regulations that create additional business expenses (//Wall Street Journal//, 2; Mercurio & Patten, 50). The new healthcare reform law taxes drug makers an annual fee of $2.5 billion, imposes a 2.3% excise tax on the sale of medical devices and requires the insurance industry to pay an annual fee of $8 billion as stated in the //Wall Street Journal.// The new healthcare law will also penalize employers with more than 50 employees up to $3000 per employee that don’t provide affordable coverage, if employees receive tax credits to buy health insurance as reported in the //Wall Street Journal//. One of the greatest concerns to both small and big businesses is the new 1099 tax reporting requirements to the Internal Revenue Service, “which businesses argue would be overly burdensome” and create a whole new business expense for conducting business as reported in the January 2011 edition of //Newsmax// magazine(Mercurio & Patten, 50). **

** The most troubling part of healthcare reform is the requirement that Americans buy healthcare insurance coverage or face a fine. Where in the Constitution does it require citizens to participate in an economic activity? Already Arizona and Oklahoma passed amendments that would make it illegal to force people to buy insurance and to penalize them if they refuse (Mercurio & Patten, 51). Constitutional law professor Randy E. Barnett states, “Never before has a tax penalty been used to mandate, rather than discourage or prohibit economic activity” (Merino, 1). Another controversial part of the healthcare reform requires employers with more than 200 workers to provide health insurance (Merino, 2). James Madison summed it up when he said over 200 years ago, “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents” (Madison, 170). This is a slam-dunk, since Madison was one of the main drafters of the Constitution. **

** Healthcare reform under the new law adds trillions to the national debt. New regulations do not come close to paying the total costs (Merino, 2). Additionally, insurance companies are restricted for selling across state lines, and thereby, reducing competition, which further raises healthcare costs and debt. Also, the cost of subsidies for healthcare does nothing to curtail the overall costs of healthcare (Cook, 3). **

** As stated earlier, healthcare reform is killing America’s economy, because it burdens America’s businesses, forces people to buy health insurance, and it adds trillions to the national debt. One can argue that more people get covered under healthcare reform. That is a valid argument, but not on the backs of small and medium size businesses that already struggle to breakeven in a distressed competitive market. The added expenses and costs to medium and small businesses from healthcare reform are killers to businesses that struggle to earn enough income to cover their payrolls and business expenses. Likewise, the current healthcare reform did nothing to address major increases in healthcare costs like frivolous law suits and limiting excessive malpractice lawsuit awards (Medical Malpractice Caps, 1). Also, real healthcare reform should allow for more competition by permitting the sale of health insurance across state lines, and, thereby, reduce healthcare costs (Cook, 3). As Representative Paul Ryan argues, “A serious fix for what ails healthcare in America will entail far more than merely tweaking the new law of the land; we will need to repeal the entire faulty architecture of the government behemoth and replace it with real reform” (Merino, 2). Simply stated, the new healthcare reform needs to be reformed! **