[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 18644]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GOODLATTE. Last week, Democratic leaders in Congress introduced 
the ``America's Affordable Health Choices Act,'' which sets the tone 
for a Washington takeover of the health care system, one defined by 
Federal regulation, mandates, a myriad of new big government programs, 
and a significant increase in Federal spending. A recent poll, which 
was released at the beginning of July, indicates that Americans by a 
margin of 2-1 think a government takeover of health care would be a bad 
thing. Unfortunately, the Democratic leadership is not listening to the 
American people and they are pushing legislation which only offers more 
of what is wrong with the current system.
  At least two different independent analyses of the House Democrats 
health care legislation estimate that more than 100 million Americans 
would lose their current health care coverage. In addition to losing 
their health insurance, Americans are going to lose control over their 
health care decisions. Under the Democrats' vision, Washington would 
have ultimate control over what is best for patients, what treatments 
are acceptable, and how long patients wait for needed care. 
Additionally, this misguided health care legislation is estimated to 
cost the Federal Government as much as $1.5 trillion. In fact, 
Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf testified before 
the House Ways and Means Committee that the coverage proposals in this 
legislation would expand Federal spending on health care to a 
significant degree. He went on to say that in CBO's analysis so far, 
they didn't see other provisions in the legislation reducing Federal 
health spending by a corresponding degree.
  To pay for this massive new government expansion, the legislation 
contains $820 billion in new job-killing tax increases imposed on 
certain income filers, a majority of whom are small businesses, even 
while the country remains in a serious recession. Struggling middle 
class families need jobs and small businesses cannot afford to hire 
more workers while paying higher taxes. It's simple. People want to 
focus on creating jobs, not raising taxes. For this reason, the 
National Retail Federation, which represents the employers of one in 
five American workers, the National Federation of Independent Business, 
which represents over 350,000 small and independent businesses, the 
United States Chamber of Commerce, and the National Association of 
Manufacturers all strongly oppose the current health care reform 
legislation.
  Rather than creating a massive government-managed health care 
bureaucracy that will dictate medical decisions from Washington, we 
should be concentrating our efforts on making health care more 
affordable for all Americans and giving them the freedom to choose the 
health care and health insurance plans that best fit their needs. Some 
important first steps toward real health care reform include creating 
health insurance tax credits, which will increase the affordability of 
health care for those who do not have access to employer-based health 
insurance, expanding health savings accounts, creating association 
health plans which allow employers to band together to purchase 
insurance coverage at lower rates for their employees, medical 
malpractice reform, which would discourage the practice of defensive 
medicine, and encouraging the establishment of a nationwide health 
information technology network which can reduce medical errors, save 
time, money and, most importantly, save lives.
  While we can all agree that our current health care system is flawed, 
there are many different ideas about how to fix it. Republicans have 
solutions that will empower patients with choices, make high quality 
coverage more affordable, and protect and preserve the doctor-patient 
relationship. The most important principles in health care reform are 
holding down costs and preserving consumer choices. We already spend 
far more per person than any other country in the world. Reform must 
mean using the health care dollars we now spend in a smarter, more 
effective way. We should be preserving and enhancing the ability of 
people to choose the plans that are tailored to their needs and the 
doctors that they trust to guide them, not putting more power in the 
hands of Washington bureaucrats.

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