Congressman on Healthcare Committee: Obama Plan Just Like IRS

Missouri Congressman Roy Blunt says Obama health care plan will push out private insurance plans and will create a scenario similar to the long lines at the DMV and to the complexity at the IRS.

WASHINGTON, March 7 - In the weekly Republican address delivered today, Missouri Congressman Roy Blunt, who serves on the House Energy and Commerce Health Care subcommittees and chairs the Health Care Solutions Working Group in the House of Representatives, characterized the Democratic healthcare plan as a considerable threat to existing private health insurance plans and projected a comparison to sluggish government entities - like the DMV and the IRS. "I'm concerned that if the government steps in it will eventually push out the private health care plans that millions of Americans enjoy today. This could cause your employer to simply stop offering coverage, hoping the government will pick up the slack," he said. President Obama's four-hour healthcare summit at the White House on Thursday was attended by Congressman Blunt, along with business leaders, medical professionals, policy experts, and other politicians. "There's been some talk about the notion that maybe we're taking on too much; that we're in the midst of an economic crisis and that the system is overloaded, and so we should put this off for another day," President Obama said, concluding the summit. "Well, let's just be clear. When times were good, we didn't get it done. When we had mild recessions, we didn't get it done. When we were in peacetime, we did not get it done. When we were at war, we did not get it done." But Congressman Blunt sees a more slumbering scenario. "Just imagine a health care system that looks like a government run operation most of us are all too familiar with -- the local DMV. Lines, paper work, taking a number," he said. "Or how about another government agency -- the IRS."