Their Way or the Highway on Health Care
The Left wants you to think conservatives don’t have any ideas.
James Valvo

We’ve all heard the claims that conservatives don’t have any ideas on how to reform the health care system, that all they know how to say is no. Americans for Prosperity has been a prime target by those who contend that all we do is send “angry mobs” to townhall meetings to disrupt legitimate debate. The problem is none of it is true.

AFP just held a 1,000 person rally in Rothschild, Wisconsin, one of dozens we are engaged in across the country. One of our panelists was well-respected businessman John Torinus, and after the event was over, he wrote an article for the business section of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Far from the supposed stifling of debate that AFP is alleged to engage in, Torinus said the crowd “pulled together by the conservative Americans for Prosperity … heard a substantive discussion of why the House-proposed version of health care reform falls short of real reform.” Torinus went on to remark that “the five panelists, including [him], cited different omissions in H.R. 3200, the House version of Obamacare. None of the panelists was scripted, nor were the questions from the audience. It was an eclectic, free-flowing presentation.” The panel discussed serious flaws in the legislation and laid out point-by-point ways to improve it.

AFP made an effort to include legislators and even invited Rep. David Obey (Wisc.-7). We left an empty chair on stage in case he decided to show up. According to Torinus, it’s unfortunate that he didn’t, because “even though the crowd was not his base, he might have learned something by attending. There was more substance than rhetoric.” The Wisconsin event is not atypical for us; we have been championing free, open and honest debate at all of our Patients First events.

Our grassroots rallies aren’t the only way AFP has made substantive contributions to the health care debate. The Denver Post reported on AFP’s line-by-line analysis of a far-Right distortion of the current House proposal. As soon as AFP saw the distortion of the bill floating around, we took it to task and delved into the substance of the bill. We found the manifesto inappropriate to the debate; quite frankly, there is no need for any conservative to exaggerate the real contents of H.R. 3200, it is bad enough as it is.

Aside from AFP’s meaningful, consistent and substantive health care reform ideas, Republicans on Capitol Hill have been offering bill after bill to improve care, lower costs and increase access. Senator Jim DeMint (S.C.) has once again introduced The Health Care Freedom Act, which would bring down costs by encouraging interstate competition between private insurance providers. It also provides fair tax treatment for those who don’t get insurance through their employer. DeMint also envisions a $5,000 voucher to help those without insurance get coverage. This plan would result in an additional 22 million Americans receiving private coverage, an outcome that is anathema to the Left.

Representative John Shadegg (Ariz.-3) has introduced H.R. 3218, the Improving Health Care for All Americans Act, which also provides refundable tax credits, expands access through individual membership associations and helps establish high risk pools. RNC Chairman Michael Steele has offered the “Seniors’ Health Care Bill of Rights,” to protect elderly patients from cuts in Medicare benefits and from government rationing based on age. And the list goes on.

Central planners, the cable news industry and Leftist advocates of even more government control over our health care might find it helpful to trumpet the falsehood that conservatives don’t have constructive ideas for health care reform and that Americans for Prosperity organizes “angry mobs”. The problem is it simply is not true.

Mr. Valvo is government affairs manager at Americans for Prosperity.