To Help Women, Don’t Suffocate the Economy

Last Thursday, Diana Furchtgott-Roth of the Hudson Institute testified before the Senate HELP Committee on the detrimental effects that current health care reform proposals would have on women.

Her main points:

• Everyone, including women, would pay more for health insurance
• The higher costs of health insurance premiums would lower cash wages for Americans
• Those on government plans, such as Medicare and Medicaid, predominantly women, would receive worse care
• The economy-wide effects of health care reform mandates would discourage job creation and incentives to work by raising taxes

My colleague Carrie has written extensively about this, and has many of the same recognitions that Ms. Furchtgott-Roth does, including making insurance more affordable through regulation tweaks and de-linking insurance from employment status. The best thing for women, and for the country as a whole, is a robust economy - not additional regulations and taxes that will discourage job creation.