As a physician, I have dedicated my life to the treatment and care of my patients. Through my experience in health care, I have seen firsthand the need for reform. When I came to Congress, I brought this knowledge and experience with me, reaching out to Members on both sides of the aisle in hope of creating health care legislation that would reduce costs and protect the doctor-patient relationship. Instead, Obamacare is what the American people have been forced to reckon with – legislation that will have a long-lasting negative impact on our health care system and our federal budget. Therefore, repealing Obamacare and replacing it is the right medicine for our nation.
The House will vote to repeal Obamacare for five main reasons: it costs too much; it includes $500 billion dollars in tax increases; it includes Medicare cuts that are harmful to seniors; it puts in jeopardy individuals’ ability to choose their own health care plan; and it uses taxpayer dollars to fund abortions. Repealing Obamacare will provide a clean slate, and give Congress the ability to pass sound health care legislation in a transparent and bipartisan manner.
Obamacare fails to address the cost crisis in health care, and in fact, dramatically increases costs for all involved. The core program is simply too expensive, and the problem was compounded by not doing enough to address important cost issues. For example, there are no direct provisions in the bill that address tort reform meaningfully. Instead, there is a small medical liability provision that provides $50 million over five years for the Secretary of HHS to provide grants to states to evaluate current tort litigation. Not to mention, requirements for states to obtain grants are onerous, and the Secretary, when reviewing a state’s grant application, must consult with a panel partly comprised of trial lawyers. This completely counteracts this provision because it puts trial lawyers, the very people who gain monetarily from malpractice lawsuits, in charge.
In order to solve the medical liability crisis and lower costs, Republicans have offered a comprehensive medical liability reform proposal that offers: (1) cap on noneconomic damages ($250,000); (2) proportional responsibility; (3) limits on attorney contingency fees; (4) limits on punitive damages; and (5) protection for states with existing functional medical liability laws. According to the Congressional Budget Office, these reforms would reduce the federal budget deficit by $54 billion over 10 years.
In an article on Tuesday, the Washington Post reported that the Obama Administration is “open” to Republican suggestions to improve Obamacare. I hope he is more sincere in this statement than those in the past. For example, at a town hall meeting last summer, the President offered to go over the health bill with members of Congress “line-by-line”. My office reached out to the President through letters, emails, phone calls, and faxes – yet we received no response. The President offered to work in a bipartisan manner, yet the only thing bipartisan about the passage of Obamacare were the Democrats who joined Republicans in voting against the job-killing measure.
Now the time has come for Congress to repeal Obamacare at the request of the American people, and pass meaningful health care legislation that will reform the system by controlling costs and getting rid of waste, without costing jobs and compromising care.
