Key Vote Alert – “No” on SGR Replacement Bill (HR ___)

KEY VOTE ALERT

“No” on SGR Replacement Bill (HR ___)

The Club for Growth urges all members of Congress to vote “NO” on the SGR Replacement Bill (HR ___) that was recently introduced in the House without being fully offset.  A vote on this bill which could include partial offset language yet to be released is expected sometime next week.  This vote will be included in the Club’s 2015 Congressional Scorecard.

For the past decade and a half, Congress has routinely passed “doc fix” bills that increased reimbursements to health care providers in the face of scheduled cuts.  These fixes papered over the well-intended Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula that tried to tamp down health care costs, but was extremely flawed.  In any legislation replacing the SGR formula, the Club’s top concern is that it is fully paid for with sensible reforms. Unfortunately, this bill falls woefully short of that goal.  News reports state that the 10-year cost of the new bill is $200 billion, of which only $70 billion will be offset.  Part of this huge price tag is a 2-year extension of CHIP, a program that should be terminated.  Worse, a cost estimate by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget suggests this bill will add $400 billion to the national debt over 20 years.  All of this, of course, assumes that Congress will abide by the $70 billion offset.  But we consider it far from certain that they will.

If an official cost estimate comes out that shows this bill is fully offset by real spending cuts or reforms, the Club will remove its objections to the plan.

Our Congressional Scorecard for the 114th Congress provides a comprehensive rating of how well or how poorly each member of Congress supports pro-growth, free-market policies and will be distributed to our members and to the public.