Congress' intentions sound good: reign in runaway medical costs, and increase access to health insurance.  But we don't measure public policy in good intentions, we measure in results.  

According to a new study released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the independent agency that overseas Medicare and Medicaid, Obamacare would actually increase medical costs over the next decade by $289 billion.  CMS also estimates that about 12 million Americans will lose their private insurance should the House plan become law.

Of those Americans who actually gain health insurance under the House plan, CMS estimates that more than half (nearly 21 million) will receive it through Medicaid.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Most of the newly insured will not be participants in a "public option" or a federal health care exchange.  They'll simply be added to federal welfare rolls. What is being advertised as health care "reform" is actually a massive expansion of the welfare state.  That's not reform, and Medicaid is a poor substitute for health care.

I could go on to discuss the $700 billion in new taxes levied by the House bill, or the fact that taxpayers are still forced to pay for abortions under the Senate's plan, or the massive addition to the national debt that this "reform" will inevitably dump on future generations.  But we shouldn't miss the forest for the trees.

The Obama administration and liberals in Congress are once again using a "crisis" to increase the size and power of the federal government.  Americans must realize that this debate is not just about the future of our health care, it's about our essential liberties.

Consider for a moment that the various health care reform bills include an unprecedented federal health insurance mandate.  This means that regardless of whether or not you want health insurance, you will be forced to buy it.  Penalties for non-compliance include hefty fines or jail time.  Wondering where they get that authority?  They'd rather you not ask.

Neither the Obama administration, which has given tacit approval, nor the Congressional leaders who've advanced it have produced a credible Constitutional basis for this insurance mandate.  Attempts to justify it using the "Commerce Clause," or the "general welfare" provisions of our Constitution are absurd and completely ahistorical.

The taxpayer funded "public option" being advanced in Congress is designed not to compete with private insurers, but to ultimately put them out of business.  The President and his advisers have admitted that passage of a "public option" is an incremental step toward "single payer" socialized medicine.  By giving authority to HHS (the Senate's plan) or the new "Health Choices Commissioner" (the House plan) to dictate what must be included in private insurance plans, it's easy to see that even with out passage of a "public option" the push is on for complete federal control of health care.

As more and more Americans are swept into some form of government insurance, we will become increasingly dependent on the federal government.  We're being asked to trade our freedom and personal responsibility to make health care decisions for our families, for the false security of a health care system run by unelected bureaucrats.  But as history has shown us, when we trade liberty for security, in the end we get neither.

Our health care system needs reform.  But I believe we can do so with pro-market solutions that empower Americans, not the government.  By increasing competition, we can make health care more affordable and more transparent.  By giving individuals and families the same tax deductions that businesses receive when purchasing health insurance, we can make it portable and secure.  These reforms don't require the massive expansion of government being proposed by Congress and the White House, and they don't require us to give up the essential freedom to do what we believe is best for ourselves and our families.