U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul has been very busy recently with the new legislation on health care reform.

The District 10 Republican, who opposed the bill, said the $1-trillion bill creates a new entitlement program at a time when the nation can least afford it. He added that small businesses will have to deal with a $500-billion tax increase.

A March 20 report by the Congressional Budget Office estimates that small companies would get $37 billion in tax credits over the next 10 years, however penalties for employers that do not provide coverage to their employees take effect in 2014 and could total $65 billion in revenue to the health care program.

"My concern and a lot of others are concerned about the impact on the economy it's going to have in killing jobs," McCaul said. "I think the number one issue right now are jobs and the economy, and this bill does just the opposite."

Many have suggested that cuts to payment rates and subsidies to insurers will result in job loss in those sectors.

He said he believes that ideas of how to fix health care would have been good, had the issue been handled in a bipartisan manner. He said he and others oppose the bill largely because of how it was handled.

"It was done in a very heavy-handed way, and I think that we could have worked together in a bipartisan effort on a lot of ideas that we both agreed on to bring down the costs of health care — a lot of insurance reform ideas that I think would have been a better approach," McCaul said.

Democrats used a series of legislative procedures, including reconciliation, to get the votes to pass the bill. No Republicans voted in favor of the legislation.

McCaul said the bill adds an unfunded liability to the State of Texas, leaving $25 billion for the state to cover.

Gov. Rick Perry said last Thursday the bill will cost the state about $24 billion over the next 10 years, an estimate that fact-checking engine Politifact.com has found to be questionable.

In addition, McCaul said the $500-billion cut to Medicare adversely affects seniors.

The CBO estimate does stipulate that payment rates to providers of Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP provisions, combined, would decrease by about $455 billion incrementally over the next 10 years. According to the CBO report, payment rates for administering Medicare services would decrease by about 21 percent in 2010 and decline further in subsequent years.

The cut to the physician reimbursement fee, however, is not a part of the recently passed health care reform bill, but rather comes from a 1997 Congressional budget provision. The provision was part of an effort to fix the former system that tied the fees to a complicated formula calculating economic factors.

McCaul and fellow Republicans argue such cuts will make it harder for physicians to cover medical costs, resulting in reduced care for the elderly and disabled.

Congressional action first delayed the cuts on Jan. 1 and again on March 1. A House bill would have once again delayed the provision for another 30 days, and the Senate was scheduled to vote on the measure March 25, but the effort was blocked by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who objected on the grounds that it wasn’t an emergency.

"I think a lot of doctors are indicating that, if this happens, and it has, that they're going to start dropping Medicare patients," McCaul said.

On the other hand, the CBO reports that Medicare spending would increase, however, at a significantly slower pace during the next two decades than during the past two decades, after adjusting for inflation.

The current bill also increases the Medicare payroll tax by 3.8 percent on investment income for individuals making more than $200,000 a year and married couples making more than $250,000 a year.

The bill also attempts to close the Medicare prescription drug "doughnut hole" that currently forces Medicare recipients to pay 100 percent of their prescription drug costs if they reach $2,830 in expenses and until they reach $4,550 in out-of-pocket expenses.

Changes to Medicare Advantage plans however, could mean higher premiums to the 10 million individuals covered under the plan. The bill reduces subsidies to companies that offer the plan.

The bill also changes the way doctors are compensated for administering Medicare services, moving away from "fee for service" payments to "bundled," to encourage doctors to work together and minimize "excessive" visits and tests.

McCaul said he believes the bill will have many unintended consequences. He said he hopes that Congress can fix some of the items in the bill in the next legislative session.

Todd Boatwright and Nicholas Schwartz contributed to this report.