AFTER FAILING EVERYWHERE ELSE, SINGLE PAYER HEALTHCARE MAKES APPEARANCE IN RHODE ISLAND
PROVIDENCE (May 3, 2016): Senate Bill 2824 is before the
Senate Health and Human Services Committee today. If implemented, the bill
would repeal health care reform in Rhode Island and replace it with a
government paid single payer system. The National Federation of Independent
Business (NFIB), the state’s largest small business advocacy group, can’t help
but ask lawmakers what they could possibly be thinking.
“Single payer healthcare has been an abysmal failure in
every state where it was attempted, why on Earth would Rhode Island lawmakers
think that this is an idea even worthy of a debate?” questioned NFIB Rhode
Island state director, Bill Vernon. “Small business owners already have plenty
of problems with the implementation of the existing health care reform package,
and the last thing they need is to yield whatever control they have left to
state government.”
Single payer healthcare system success has remained elusive
for lawmakers who see it as the ultimate goal for implementing a taxpayer
funded healthcare system. Vermont’s Governor, Peter Shumlin, ran a successful
re-election campaign on a promise to make his state the first to implement
single payer healthcare. However, when reality sunk in, Shumlin pulled the plug
on the plan and was forced to admit publically that, “It became clear that the
risk of economic shock is too high at this time to offer a plan I can
responsibly support for passage in the Legislature.” Economic shock is
certainly not something the small business community in Rhode Island can
withstand, considering the sluggish recovery from the great recession.
“The small business community is still reeling from the
un-kept promise of controlling the cost of health insurance that came with the
first round of health care reform. Giving the state complete control over our
health care system will no doubt send costs skyrocketing. It will be a
budgetary disaster, especially when our existing fiscal obligations are already
overwhelming,” concluded Vernon.
