The Stimulus Bill: Why the Senate Must Fix the Health Care Provisions

(By Nina Owcharenko, The Heritage Foundation) - Liberals in Congress, under the guise of emergency economic stimulus legislation, are attempting to push forward their radical health care agenda. These provisions would fuel fiscal irresponsibility in state Medicaid programs, expand dependence on the already-unsound Medicaid entitlement program, distort health care choices for unemployed workers, and set up a federal infrastructure that could be used as a tool for government rationing of medical treatments, procedures, and services.

If Members of Congress insist on these provisions, they should at the very least require a review of Medicaid spending by the states, prioritize Medicaid spending on a state-by-state basis, empower families who want to secure alternative private coverage options, and prevent government interference in the doctor-patient relationship.