GOP: Senate health bill to raise premiums

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Democratic healthcare reform proposals will mean higher premiums and higher healthcare costs, a Republican U.S. senator said Saturday.

Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, speaking in the GOP's weekly radio and Internet address, said a healthcare reform package released this week by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., "will result in higher premiums and higher healthcare costs for Americans -- period."

"At a time when we are experiencing record double-digit unemployment, the Reid bill raises taxes by nearly half a trillion dollars," Crapo asserted. "A significant number of these provisions violate President Obama's promise to the American people, namely that lower- and middle-class Americans would not see a tax increase under his proposals."

Crapo also alleged the Democratic package would "increase taxes by hundreds of billions of dollars; cut Medicare for senior citizens by hundreds of billions of dollars; grow the federal government by over $2.4 trillion in new spending; and push the needy uninsured into a failing Medicaid system," among other ills.

"It's a real eye-opener!" Crapo said of the bill, which he encouraged all Americans to read.