Former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael O. Leavitt. Photo by Brooks Kraft/Corbis

When I was a teenager, there was a farmer down the road from my grandfather who always seemed to have more land than he could afford and a new John Deere tractor. Knowing a little about the economic realities that our family farm faced, I asked, “Grandpa, how can he do that?”

My grandfather replied, “Mike, if we stick with what is real and right, we will be farming long after he’s been repossessed.”

That’s exactly what happened. A few years later, our neighbor and his tractor were out of business, and we were still farming.

Real and right—it’s a principle we teach our children. It’s also the principle that should guide our health care reform efforts.

President Obama and congressional leaders keep saying that their health care legislation won’t increase the deficit. That doesn’t appear to be either real or right.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the $1.2 trillion House health bill would raise taxes by $500 billion and raise deficits by at least $608 billion from 2015 to 2024.

In addition to tax increases, all of this new spending would be funded by reducing the growth in Medicare by $600 billion. Proponents say that this would have no effect on the services received by people who depend on Medicare. Again, this isn’t real or right.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer went further, claiming that the House health bill wouldn’t raise taxes or deficits, regardless of what the CBO says. Rather, he said, it would be paid for with “savings” from Medicare.

In trying to squeeze budget savings from Medicare, Congress will do what it always has done: It will reduce the rates that Medicare pays to doctors and hospitals. The result will be fewer doctors taking Medicare patients. Hospitals will give preference to private-insurance patients who pay more. President Obama and congressional leaders keep saying they want the government to negotiate better drug prices. But when the government negotiates drug prices, it does so by saying to drug companies, “Either give me a lower price, or we will not let Medicare members buy your drug.” That is, the government will begin to make decisions about what drugs you can take. That’s government-run health care, and it’s called rationing.

Medicare Part D has been a big success because drug companies compete to give consumers what they want at the lowest prices. When consumers are given information and options, they make better decisions about their health than the government does.

The health “reform” bills being proposed by the president and congressional leaders would let the federal government make health choices rather than consumers. The bill would actually create a new federal bureaucracy, called the Health Choices Administration, to choose what plans consumers can buy. Unfortunately, that’s real, but it isn’t the right thing to do.

We need health care reform, but let’s stick with what’s real and right.

Michael O. Leavitt was U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services from 2005 to 2009.