Progress Illinois

Rep. Aaron Schock isn't too excited about the idea of the government providing affordable health insurance (the so-called "public option").  And like his Republican colleagues in the House, he's doing everything he can to stir up opposition to the idea.  Unfortunately, Schock is also leaving out some facts along the way.

For instance, on WLS' Don Wade and Roma this morning, the Peoria congressman suggested that under proposals favored by the Democrats, there will be strong incentives for employers to drop private coverage for its workforce, which will dramatically increase the price of the public plan. Listen (full audio here):

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SCHOCK: What [Americans] don’t want is a one-size fits all, cookie-cutter approach to insurance and to coverage. And the president tries to appease them by saying – because overall the majority of Americans are happy with their health care – the president starts by saying, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it. Now for the rest of you that don’t have it, let me talk to you.” And there’s the big asterisk because what the whole plan is predicated on is a catch-all system, a federal system for those who don’t have health insurance paid for by those who do have health insurance and those who pay your taxes. The problem is is that what it says is if you are an employer and you provide an employee-provided health care plan, you will be taxed -- you no longer will be able to write off the deductibility of your health care plan. And what will happen is, in very swift order, if you have a catch-all system for those that aren’t insured, and you then punish those people who are insured, you'll have in very swift order: move people who are insured, and employers saying we’re going to make responsible decisions, we’re going to cover our folks with a health care plan, drop them. And people will then be forced to go onto the one-size government plan in very short order. And the Democrat’s own estimate on what this is going to cost is going to skyrocket.

Schock's concerns can be traced back to the Congressional Budget Office's scoring of an early version of the Senate's health care reform bill in the middle of June. The office estimated that employers would stop providing coverage to 15 million employees. Those Americans would in turn be able to access the "Health Insurance Exchange" -- with the help of government subsidies -- to purchase individual health insurance. As a result, costs were much higher and coverage much lower than the Democrats had hoped.  The CBO estimated that the government would spend $1 trillion over 10 years, only to see 16 million additional people gain health insurance.

But the June CBO estimate left out one crucial detail: an employer mandate. Such a provision would require employers to either provide their workers with private health insurance or help the government defray the cost of providing public insurance. As the Washington Post's Ezra Klein has noted, the mandate is the key to health care. And as Schock seems to have missed, it is included in the new tri-committee bill released by House leaders yesterday.

Specifically, employers whose payrolls exceed $400,000 per year would pay a fee equal to 8 percent of their firm's average wages if they opted not to cover their workers. The fee drops to 2 percent for businesses whose payroll falls between $400,000 and $250,000. And for small businesses under $250,000, the fee does not apply. (In fact, tax credits will be available to bear the heavy coverage burden small business owners currently face.)

The CBO's score of the new bill is much more promising than their first go-round. Overall, it would cover 94 percent of people living in the U.S. and 97 percent of legal immigrants while the ten-year price tag would come in at just over $1 trillion. The House bill will actually increase the number of people who receive coverage through their employer by 2 million. And the large employer mandate would generate $163 billion in new revenue.

Perhaps Schock didn't have a chance to read the language in the bill before he was called for the interview this morning. But he'll have no excuse for dishing out these misconceptions next time around.