Tancredo on Health Care

Health Care

The way to address America s heath care problems is not through bigger government programs, litigation, regulation, or additional government spending. Indeed, these things have contributed and continue to contribute to the rising cost of health care.

Another contributing factor is illegal immigration. While illegal immigration isn't generally the first thing Americans think of when they think about health care, it has a significant impact on the cost, availability and quality of health care available to Americans. The millions of uninsured illegal aliens in this country invariably get sick or injured. When they do, they seek what ends up being very expensive treatment in hospital emergency rooms treatment federal law requires
health care personnel to provide. The problem has become so acute that Congress recently allocated $1 billion in taxpayer funds to defray the costs incurred by hospitals treating illegal aliens. This is another good reason for our government to take the problem of illegal immigration seriously.

I believe in market based solutions to health care problems. One solution is the use of Association Health Plans or AHP s. AHP s would assist greatly in improving access to affordable health care without creating a new big government scheme. AHPs would allow small business owners to band together through pre-existing professional associations to purchase health insurance at reduced rates. It will help to reduce the number of uninsured Americans by
giving small business the same accessibility, affordability, and choice in the health care marketplace that Fortune 500 companies and unions now enjoy. Experts estimate that up to 8.5 million uninsured small business workers could gain coverage and small business owners would save up to 25 percent on health insurance enabling more businesses to provide coverage.