Dayton Daily News: U.S. Sen. Portman calls for health care repeal at local visit

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman on Friday visited an advanced manufacturing firm here and called again for repeal of the Obama Administration’s health care overhaul.

At a press conference at the Mound Laser and Photonics Center, Portman, a Republican, also said taxes on medical instruments included in the health care reform bill should be struck down and the regulatory approval process for medical instruments streamlined.

“There are other countries in the world, including Europe, that are approving medical devices more quickly than the United States is,” Portman said. “That makes it harder for us to compete here because, unfortunately, some of our best technology is going overseas first and they’re taking advantage of it.”

Portman was flanked by Mound Laser’s president, Larry Dosser, and employees of the company, which makes high-tech products for medical, defense and other clients.

The freshman senator said the bill passed last year should be scuttled and replaced with such measures as allowing insurance companies to sell across state lines and law changes that would allow companies to form their own risk pools.

Portman said reports by outside groups such as PriceWaterhouseCoopers project health care costs to businesses will increase this year by up to 9 percent. Portman said regulations in the health care law and uncertainty about its effects are driving insurers to raise premiums.

“Larry’s costs are going up even higher than that because he’s a small business,” Portman said of Dosser. “But that’s not sustainable when we’re talking about three or four times inflation.”

A report issued in June of last year by PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP Health Research Institute said American businesses can anticipate medical costs to rise 9 percent in 2011. This represented 0.5 percent decrease in the growth rate compared with 2010, the report stated.

Hospitals shifting costs to employers and private payers, consolidation among providers and upgrades to electronic health record systems were expected to drive the increases, the report stated.

Proponents of the health care law say it will provide more Americans with health insurance and close prescription drug coverage gaps. Other parts of the law that took effect last fall allowed young adults to remain on their parents’ insurance policies longer and have forbidden insurers to deny coverage to sick children.