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E-mailHouse GOP health plan superior
Health care costs have been skyrocketing for far too long, overwhelming family budgets as the middle class is trying to make ends meet. That's why we need real health care reform to reduce costs for families and small businesses.
What we don't need, however, is a government takeover of health care that would raise costs and put bureaucrats, not you and your doctor, in charge of critical medical decisions. Yet that appears to be just what the Democrats in charge of Washington, D.C., are pursuing as the health care debate continues this summer.
House Republicans are offering better solutions to bring down health care costs for you and your family, and today we are outlining our plan to make quality health care coverage affordable and accessible for every American.
Led by Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and our House GOP Health Care Reform Solutions Group, some of the brightest minds in our party, from doctors to business owners, have put together a commonsense approach that will reduce costs, expand access and increase the quality of care in a way that we can afford. These men and women know health care -- and know that it takes real innovation, not more of the same old Washington mandates, to make health care less costly for you and your family.
Here's how our plan will work. We'll lower costs by offering incentives to help Americans who do not have access to quality health care get the coverage they can afford. We'll give states tools to design programs that make health care coverage more affordable for everyone while cutting regulations so insurance companies compete for your business and you can shop around for the best coverage and price.
We'll reduce costs and expand access to quality care by providing small businesses better options to make health care coverage available for employees and their families. By letting small businesses band together through associations and purchase health insurance for workers at a lower cost, just like large corporations do, more families than ever will enjoy health care coverage previously unavailable to them.
We'll root out health care waste, fraud and abuse, which cost taxpayers billions, and reform medical liability rules that cost families millions each year -- millions that line the pockets of trial lawyers at the expense of patients and doctors. In many rural areas, in fact, medical liability insurance has become so costly that it is driving doctors out of town or even out of business. That reduces choices and increases costs, and our plan will change that.
By keeping government bureaucrats out of the medical decision-making process, our plan preserves the doctor-patient relationship. We ensure that every American who likes his health care coverage can keep it, while giving all Americans the freedom to choose the health plan that best meets their needs.
And we focus on prevention and wellness programs to help avert costly procedures after you get sick and to increase transparency to improve patients' access to the best health care information available. In short, our plan puts a premium on reducing costs, expanding access and improving quality.
Washington Democrats are barreling ahead with a proposal that would amount to a government takeover of health care -- an approach that would put bureaucrats in charge of medical decisions rather than patients and doctors, deny access to needed treatments and cures, and raise taxes on middle-class families. They disingenuously call it "reform." In reality, it would force millions of Americans off of their health care plans and onto the government rolls.
At the heart of the Democrats' plan are new mandates that will place a heavier burden than ever on families, small businesses and employers. Not only does that mean higher costs for you, but that means higher costs for your employer, too. And that equals far fewer jobs.
With unemployment now topping 9 percent, that's precisely what our work force doesn't need. In fact, the National Federation of Independent Businesses, a small-business advocacy group, recently warned Congress that "the devastating impact of an employer mandate is clear -- it is a job killer, potentially costing 1.6 million jobs -- hardly what this country needs in these challenging economic times. Fundamentally, a mandate fails to address the real problems of our health care system -- unsustainable costs." Instead, it makes the problems much, much worse.
Middle-class families and small businesses have far too much at stake to allow this costly scheme to march forward unimpeded. Republicans are energized to offer our better solutions to reduce costs and expand Americans' access to the best health care in the world.
John Boehner, House minority leader, represents Ohio's 8th Congressional District.
