Health care reform is needed to improve the affordability and accessibility of coverage for all Americans.  However, the solution is not government-run health care, which I strongly oppose.  A government-run system will result in lower quality of care, rationing, increased costs, higher taxes especially on small businesses, and bureaucrats making sensitive medical decisions that should be solely between you and your doctor.  Proposals such as "public option" and "cooperatives" are, in my view, stepping-stones to a nationalized system.  I am also adamantly opposed to legislation that would allow coverage of abortion or permit illegal immigrants to obtain taxpayer-funded benefits. 

There are commonsense ways to improve our current health care system through private pooling arrangements for small businesses and nonprofits, portability, ending discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, reducing waste and fraud, and medical malpractice liability reform.  

Because I am opposed to government-run health care, I voted against Speaker Pelosi's health care bill (H.R. 3962) when it brought to the House floor on November 7, 2009 and against the final health care takeover bill on March 21, 2010.  

For more information on Congressman Bachus' position on health care reform, click here.