Health-Care

Since the president’s health-care law was signed into law, many of my constituents have contacted me with their concerns regarding access to affordable, quality health care. The majority of these constituents have encouraged me to vote to repeal this intrusive legislation and replace it with commonsense reforms. That is why one of the first votes the House took to start the 112th Congress was to repeal the health-care bill. I supported H.R. 2, the Repealing the Job-Killing Health-Care Law Act.

In addition to trying to repeal the entire health-care law, the House has passed other pieces of legislation repealing or replacing some of the most expensive, unworkable and burdensome segments of the new health-care law.

The first piece of the president’s health-care law Congress repealed was the 1099 requirement, which provided relief to small businesses by eliminating this onerous requirement. The 1099 provision was scheduled to take effect this year, when small businesses would have to send to the IRS a 1099 form for each and every business-to-business transaction of $600 or more. It was expected the IRS would need to hire as many as 16,000 new auditors.

Most of the repeal bills have received resistance in the Senate, including H.R. 1213 and H.R. 1214, bills that would slash two costly slush funds that were included in the health-care bill. Fortunately, Congress has been successful in repealing the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act, the government-administered long-term care insurance program included in President Obama’s health-care law that would, if formally implemented, explode the nation’s already-growing budget deficit. Recently, the administration finally announced that they could not find a way to make the program solvent.

It is my belief that the Obama administration’s current health-care law sets onerous rules and regulations empowering the federal government, rather than the American people. We still do not know and understand the reach and implications of this legislation, which passed almost two years ago. I will continue to fight for a full repeal of the law, which is brimming with poorly conceived, wildly expensive and intrusive provisions that will slow job creation, increase debt and make it tougher for families and small business owners to make ends meet. The law has already resulted in insurance premium increases. I am worried this trend of fiscal instability will continue to inflict the American public if we do not continue to fight for its full repeal.

I support commonsense reforms to our health-care system. For instance, I often hear from cancer survivors and family members of those who have lost their lives to cancer; invariably, their stories leave me affected – and convinced more must be done to underscore the benefits of education, early detection and regular screenings. These stories have also encouraged me to look at ways to improve current policy impacting breast cancer screenings.