We are hard at work in Washington trying to enact what many call health care "reform." Given the current legislation promoted by some congressional leaders, health care "reform" won’t describe what Americans will get. Health care "rationing" will be a more honest description.

Now first, let me state that members of both political parties have the same goal: We want high quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

Unfortunately, the "health care reform" proposal going through the Health Committee now won’t even come close to achieving that goal. In fact, it will expand government programs at the expense of the already overburdened taxpayer, and it may restrict the benefits you currently have, or deny you access to the doctor or treatment of your choice.

As a member of both the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Health Committee, the two committees writing the so-called health care reform bill, I have worked hard to call attention to what lurks under this banner of "reform."

The facts are grim.

First, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that, once budget gimmicks are excluded, the price tag for just one portion of this bill would be over $1 trillion. When the other parts of the bill are totaled up, I expect it to be another $1 trillion or more. That is a staggering cost for American taxpayers.

Second, what’s worse is that this multi-trillion dollar bill won’t solve the problem. Estimates predict that under these partisan proposals, 15 million Americans could lose their employer provided health insurance.

Third, don’t believe the promise that President Obama has made that "if you like your health care, you can keep it." Should a government-run or so-called "public plan" option -- meant to address the estimated 47 million uninsured -- be enacted, estimates say 118 million Americans could lose their current health care coverage, and 130 million Americans could end up on the public plan.

As we have seen with Medicare, hospitals, doctors and other providers and eventually you, will pay the price with a public plan.

Medicare providers already get paid well below costs. For example, Kansas hospitals are projected to operate at a negative 7.7 percent Medicare margin this year- a loss of nearly $130 million. That brings total losses to Kansas hospitals to over $1.1 billion since 1997.

Who pays the difference between what Medicare pays and the actual cost of care? Americans with private health insurance do. According to a recent Milliman study, this cost-shift amounts to an $88.8 billion "hidden tax" on private payers.

The new government-run plan in this bill will greatly exacerbate this problem by setting payment rates in the same or similar manner as Medicare.

Access to health care will become a major problem under this scenario. It won’t matter if 100 percent of Americans have health insurance if they don’t have a doctor to see them when they are sick.

Although this bill does not contain cuts to Medicare, it assumes that the Finance Committee will do the dirty work of paying for these massive expansions of government by slashing Medicare.

Another proposal in this bill attempts to mandate employers to provide healthcare to employees.

The American public deserves to know the consequences of an employer mandate.

A study by Harvard economist Kate Baker and University of Michigan Sociologist Helen Levy found that an employer mandate would put 33 percent of uninsured workers at risk of losing their jobs if their employers were required to offer health insurance.

The employer mandate does nothing to increase coverage. It is simply a new tax on employers to pay for the policies in this bill. It is a job killer that would harm the very people that this bill ostensibly aims to help.

There are proposals that would improve the health care system without resorting to a government-run plan that would ration care and restrict patient choice. Those are the bills I will support on behalf of Kansas patients and health care providers. I believe it’s critical.