A Hard Winter in Washington for Health Care

Washington, D.C ., has experienced record snow fall this winter, but it’s nothing compared to the record number of promises President Obama has made to include Republican ideas in the debate about health care reform. As Obama begins a summit today with Republicans, the revised plan he offers is even worse than what he has supported in the past, said Kansas First District Congressman and U.S. Senate Candidate Jerry Moran (R-Hays).

“This is President Obama’s latest attempt to save his vision of health care reform, which has been soundly rejected by the American people,” Moran said. “The President isn’t listening to Americans. In some ways, his ‘new’ reform proposal is even worse than the plan passed by the House last year.”   The new plan actually costs nearly a trillion dollars – well above the already sky-high proposals passed by both chambers last year. 

Moran said the President’s latest plan is more of the same – a massive government takeover of the health care system under a different name and with even more costs involved. In addition, Obama’s latest plan doesn’t include the Stupak Amendment, which places tough restrictions on federal funding of abortion.

Equally troubling is the President’s behind-the-scenes push to have Congressional Democrats pass his latest health care reform plan using the budget reconciliation process rather than regular order, especially in the Senate.

“Even some Democrats like Senator Lincoln of Arkansas and Senator Bayh of Indiana have said they would oppose efforts to pass a plan by reconciliation,” Moran said. “I strongly oppose this move, which defies the clear convictions of the American people. The President’s desire to pass health care reform is more political than practical – and it certainly cannot be called bipartisan.”

Moran said that the American people want Obama and Congress to start over with a new plan. “The current plan approaches the concept of reform from a philosophically incorrect set of presumptions,” Moran explained.  ”President Obama doesn’t seem to realize that the profit motive is not inherently evil, particularly when it comes to the development of amazing medical technologies and life-saving drugs.  Doctors, nurses and other health care providers – not government bureaucrats – need to join with patients in deciding approaches to treatment.” 

The best place to start improving the nation’s health care system is by reducing costs, which will increase access to health care. Moran calls for malpractice reform, implementing policies that improve the pace of technology innovations, as well as policies that encourage better prevention against chronic disease. Moran also supports measures to make insurance portable from job to job, removing barriers to competition across state borders in the insurance industry, medical malpractice reform and removing pre-existing conditions as a barrier to affordable health insurance. 

Moran is one of the leading Members of Congress opposed to “Obamacare”. He was one of the first House members to sign the “Repeal It!” pledge to introduce legislation to repeal any enacted legislation that calls for a government takeover of the nation’s health care system.