While Congress has been debating health care, my 4-year-old son, Duke, has been here with me in Washington. While he has been more interested in Star Wars games than health care policy, his future and the future of all the children of the 20th Congressional District has been on my mind. My goal of reducing future health care costs for families and small businesses is why I voted against the House health care bill last year, and why I am voting for President Obama’s health care proposal now.

During the past year, I have met with thousands of people during more than 100 public events, and visited all 137 towns in the 20th District. While everyone I listened to has a different opinion on health care reform, one thing was consistent: We must reduce the cost of health care for families, small businesses and, most importantly, our children.

During the past two months, I read the entire proposal and was actively involved in working to make the legislation better for upstate New York. I am pleased to know that many of my ideas were included in the president’s proposal, including encouraging families to make healthy choices, rewarding doctors based on quality outcomes and cracking down on Medicare fraud and abuse. These common-sense changes will help ensure that we make health care more affordable while reducing our deficit by $1.3 trillion over the next 20 years.

Before you elected me last year, I was a small-businessman focused on creating jobs in upstate New York. While my job has changed, my focus on fighting for economic growth has not. The bill before us makes significant improvements over previous proposals by eliminating the employer mandate for small businesses, providing critical tax incentives and creating health care exchanges that allow businesses to band together to negotiate better prices from insurance companies.

Right here in the Capital Region, I fought to ensure that several of our largest employers — paper mills and medical device manufacturers — are treated fairly under this legislation. These reforms ensure that our local businesses can continue to provide quality health care coverage while creating jobs here in upstate New York.

Too many families who already have health insurance have been denied care or dropped entirely when they get sick. This legislation takes health care decisions out of the hands of insurance companies and places them back in the hands of doctors and patients by banning health insurance companies from dropping your coverage when you get sick and by ending lifetime caps on coverage. Additionally, 8,600 individuals in our district with pre-existing conditions will finally be able to obtain health insurance coverage.

While this legislation is far from perfect, I believe that we must take decisive action to reduce health care costs. If we do not act now, health care spending will have tripled to over $7 trillion a year by the time my son graduates from high school. Families in upstate New York simply cannot afford the cost of inaction.

During the past year, I have listened to business owners, doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, teachers and thousands of other residents of the 20th District. In Saratoga County alone, I have held 42 events. Here in Washington, I have listened to supporters and opponents of the proposal like Republican Paul Ryan, who has proposed a Republican alternative plan, and numerous non-partisan national experts. And, unlike many members of Congress, I read every page of the proposal. After hundreds of hours of analysis, I am confident that this legislation will control costs for families and small businesses, crack down on insurance company abuses and reduce our federal deficit.

My office in Saratoga Springs is at 487 Broadway and the phone number is 581-8247. As always, I look forward to continue listening to you and continuing to run an open and transparent office.