Statement from Karen Davenport, Director of Health Policy at the Center for American Progress Action Fund:
“Like the McCain plan that voters soundly rejected in November, the new GOP plan would cause people to lose the health care they have now by dismantling the employer-based system, and replacing today’s coverage with an insufficient tax subsidy that doesn’t even cover half of the cost of the average family’s health care premiums.
“Unlike McCain’s plan, the GOP plan recognizes that the individual market is broken and discriminates against people with pre-existing conditions — but their plan fails to address these problems. In addition to the fact that their tax credit is too small to be effective, their plan does not provide incentives for insurance companies to join the state exchanges, and it fails to regulate companies that decide not to join.
"In short, their plan adopts the language but not the meaning of a workable insurance exchange. Their fix fails, and individuals are left at risk of being forced to pay exorbitant prices or being denied care if they happen to be one of the 56 million Americans with a pre-existing condition like high blood pressure, hay fever or diabetes.”
Biography of Karen Davenport
Statement from Dr. Vivek Murthy, M.D., M.B.A.; President and Co-Founder, Doctors for America
“As a physician, I have significant concerns about the healthcare proposal put forth by Senators Burr and Coburn.
“Everyday, I see patients and physicians struggling against private insurance companies over issues related to excessive premiums and insufficient coverage. The Burr-Coburn proposal does little other than entrench this concern. The proposed tax credit would only cover a fraction of the bill given that it costs more than $12,000 to insure the average American family per year. There is also no clear plan to address the exorbitant costs that are driving our current healthcare crisis, including excessive overhead costs in private insurance companies and the frequent use of services and treatments that do not work but cost a great deal. There are also no provisions in this proposal to prevent insurance companies from continuing to choose healthy patients for enrollment while denying coverage to those patients with preexisting conditions.
“The Burr-Coburn plan suggests that we will be leaving patients on their own to negotiate with powerful insurance companies with only an insufficient tax credit to help them out. This is not the change we need – nor will it solve the problems that patients and physicians face. As a physician, that’s why I am fighting for real reform that will give every patient a fair chance at high quality, affordable healthcare.”
Biography of Dr. Vivek Murthy; President and Co-Founder, Doctors for America:
Vivek Murthy, M.D., M.B.A. is an attending physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an instructor at Harvard Medical School where he is an internal medicine hospitalist. He is co-founder and president of Doctors for America, a grassroots organization of more than 15,000 doctors and medical students in 50 states who are working to build a high-quality, affordable health care system for all Americans.
In 2011 Dr. Murthy was appointed by President Barack Obama to the National Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health where he has worked on developing the National Prevention Strategy. He has lectured widely on health care reform and physician advocacy, and his writings and research have been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, or JAMA; Science; the Journal of the National Cancer Institute; and The Washington Post. Dr. Murthy’s past research has focused on the participation of women and minorities in cancer clinical trials. Dr. Murthy is also the co-founder and chairman of Epernicus, LLC and its subsidiary TrialNetworks, which build social networking platforms for life sciences companies and clinical trials.
Dr. Murthy received his B.A. from Harvard University, his M.D. from the Yale School of Medicine, his M.B.A. from the Yale School of Management, and his residency training in internal medicine from Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is a native of Miami, Florida, and currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts.
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