Biden, the IRS and true healthcare reform

Op-ed published June 11, 2022 in The Western Journal as "Op-Ed: Pay Attention to What Biden and the IRS Are Conspiring On, Because It's Big"

By Jonathan Imbody

With a split Senate and free-falling poll numbers, President Biden is mucking about the bureaucratic swamp to salvage his leftist agenda.

Biden's latest end run around Congress turns a scandalously compliant IRS into a political tool. An Executive Order and presumed behind-the-scenes White House lobbying have convinced the supposedly apolitical tax agency to issue a statute-defying regulation that creates a new government healthcare subsidies affordability test. The White House unwittingly boasts that the plan could reduce the number of uninsured by 200,000, but CBO and health experts estimate that tiny change would cost taxpayers $225,000 per person.

The administration's goal in expanding federal health insurance subsidies is simple and clear--to get more citizens on the government dole and beholden to the party of wealth redistribution.

Thanks to a coming new Congress and a deeply disenchanted electorate, the left likely will come up short on that goal. Americans have been witnessing daily the real-life consequences of big government ideology, as the fallout from Biden's and blue state officials' handling of COVID has become clear.

Americans have seen, for example, how Biden and big government politicians turned the Trump-era vaccines triumph into a weapon. Their jack-booted mandates cost non-complying health professionals their jobs and soldiers their service.

At the same time, administration officials by contrast ceded their proper decision-making authority to government health bureaucrats. Politicized health bureaucrats like Dr. Anthony Fauci have proven totally incompetent to anticipate the disastrous consequences of myopic COVID policies that targeted germs while destroying people's lives.

Politicians--not epidemiologists--should have assessed and addressed the ruinous results that shutdowns predictably would have on the economy, jobs, national security, children's education, mental health, domestic violence, substance abuse and myriad other maladies that we now know mushroomed during the lockdowns.

Lessons learned about big government during COVID now should be applied to chart a course for future health policy.

First, do no harm.

Putting politicians and bureaucrats in the driver's seat of our personal healthcare decisions is like putting a drunk in the driver's seat of a car. Elderly patients died because of government mandating that nursing homes admit infected COVID-19 patients. Cancer claimed more victims because indiscriminate government shutdowns canceled early detection screenings. Children lost out on learning because government officials closed schools to pacify teacher unions while criminalizing protesting parents.

Such experiences now should propel Americans to reject government-run, socialist-style "Medicare for All" health policies that put unelected bureaucrats in charge of decisions that impact our lives. We must eliminate excessive regulations that steal time away from doctors caring for their patients. We also should stop the overtaxing that hampers American drug innovation and increases our dependence on other countries for drugs.

Second, restore the patient-doctor relationship.

Again skirting Congress, the Biden HHS is moving to rescind a Trump-era conscience rule that enforced federal law prohibiting forced participation in abortion and other ethical controversies. A Biden Executive Order has triggered myriad agency regulations redefining sex apart from biology and illegally attempting to compel health professionals to participate in transgender procedures and prescriptions.

Polling reveals that such illegal compulsion and removing conscience protections can force faith-based professionals and institutions out of medicine. That loss endangers millions of patients who depend on faith-based healthcare.

Third, provide targeted, sustainable government safety nets for individuals truly in need.

Pragmatic Americans recognize that socialist policies threaten to devastate the economy by increasing taxes and the federal deficit, leading to less healthcare resources and access. To prevent this debacle, we must shift healthcare aid for the poor away from the federal government and to the states.

Finally, focus on targeted reforms that result in better access, lower cost and higher quality.

Conservatives offer solutions. The Health Policy Consensus Group plan, for example, gives patients control of health decisions instead of government dictates; lowers costs through price transparency, capitalistic competition and innovation instead of socialism; increases quality and access by reducing red tape and needless regulation; and assures compassionate and sustainable state safety nets for the truly needy.

This Fall, voters will focus on inflation, jobs, and the economy--including healthcare. Most voters don't want sweeping, radical change and ideological propaganda; they simply want focused, common sense solutions that work in the real world.

Jonathan Imbody is a three-decade veteran of federal public policy and a consultant and writer at FaithSteps.net.