Wilmington | November 7, 2009 - The U.S House of Representatives is tentatively scheduled to vote this weekend on H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act.

It is an attempt to reform the country's health care system, to include those now excluded from the system and to lower the runaway costs of the entire system.

It will bring health insurance to more people, and that is a good thing. But the bill, as it is written, will not reform how health care is done in the country and it most certainly will not lower the system's costs.

In fact, many of the savings the bill supposedly will bring are chimerical. Our health system is likely to grow more costly and our Medicare benefits for senior citizens will grow more expensive.

H.R. 3962 supposedly will be paid for by more taxes on the rich and massive cuts in Medicare and other government health programs. That is unlikely. When was the last time Congress had the fortitude to cut Medicare payments? Such cuts have been on the books since the 1990s, and Congress repeatedly has backed off imposing them because of lobbying and financial pressure from organized physicians groups.

What makes the House members think a future Congress will be braver than this one?

In addition, the reduced payments proposed in the bill will not be calibrated to further accuracy or quality. The cuts are more like squiggles on paper, put there to make the package look good. The health care industry endorsers of the bill stand to reap big profits from its requirements -- all at the expense of consumers and taxpayers.

H.R. 3962 should not be passed.

Delaware's U.S. Rep. Mike Castle has indicated he will vote against the bill. He is right to do so.

H.R. 3962 is not real reform.