Health Care
I am fully committed to repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act. One of the very first votes I cast in the 112th Congress was to repeal the new health reform law and instruct the committees of jurisdiction to begin work on finding common sense patient-centered replacement legislation.
House conservatives have tackled Obamacare on all fronts and share the same end goal: full repeal. Below is a compilation of floor actions to fight Obamacare.
- To date, three programs have been completely halted. The 1099 tax reporting requirement and free choice vouchers were repealed by Congress and signed into law, and the Administration ceased implementation of the unworkable CLASS Act Program.
- Seven Obamacare provisions have been repealed / have had funding rescinded and signed into law:
- Repealed onerous 1099 tax reporting requirement imposed on small businesses
- Reduced improper Exchange subsidy overpayments
- Repealed Free-Choice Vouchers
- Reduced funding for the CO-OP
- Reduced funding for the IPAB rationing board,
- Reduced funding for the Prevention and Public Health “slush” Fund
- Reduced a Medicaid formula drafting error included in the “Louisiana Purchase”
- House conservatives won’t stop there; we will continue to pursue strategic opportunities to get other de-funding and repeal bills to President Obama’s desk.
The Affordable Care Act isn’t lowering the cost of health care for hard working Americans like the President promised. Middle class families are facing a $2,100 increase in annual health insurance premiums. The National Center for Policy Analysis has found that given recent trends, the employee contribution to a family health insurance premium plus out-of-pocket costs will comprise one half of the household income by 2031 and total household income by 2042!
List of the Tax Increases in the President’s Health Care Law
The President’s Health Care Law – Provisions That Go Into Effect in 2013
A Look at How the President’s Health Care Law Will Affect You
Dear Mr. Culberson, West University Place, Texas
SUBJECT: Bioidentical Hormones Estriol/Menopausal Issues
Glad to see you are getting the oil drilling going!! Now maybe you can focus on a very important issue of health!!
Please do not take away my bioidentical hormones (estriol, and the others), this is the only medication that helps my menopause, and high blood pressure issues. If you ban these drugs, you will have West University/Houston, Tx. ladies to deal with, and believe me you do not want unhappy menopausal women, with your career in our hands. This form of medication is safer than any of the crap that Wyatt Prempro, and Premarin are pushing.
Bioidenticals have been around since the 1930’s, you need to do your research. Also, very few doctors know how to write the prescriptions, and need the help of compounded pharmacist. Why don’t you just let the compounding pharmacist do a consultation, and mix the ingredients, IT’S ALL Natural, they do it anyway, and take the doctor out of the equation (save the patient money)? They are not hurting anyone, it all comes down to money, our government is more concerned with fancy gifts, from drug pushers, than the Peoples health.
What happened to the days of Pres. Reagan, he didn’t always have his mug on the TV, trying to interfere with everyones lives except for the betterment, now you can’t trust any politician, they say they are Republican, and then have notions of Democrats?
Also, I know someone that goes over to the Planned Parent Hood Clinic in Bellaire, Tx, for her Well Woman care, and mammograms, they have wonderful programs over there in their that help people over 50, and others, now I don’t particularly agree with the abortions, but there are far more wonderful benefits to this clinic than just that. They even hand out free birth control, how wonderful, keeps down the birthrate from patients, that can’t afford children, we all win in the long run. Now Gov. Perry is trying to de-fund Planned Parent hood, do you guys really want poor people running around ill, and pregnant, use your common sense, everytime Obama fires up Airforce One, he could pay for a years worth of healthcare for the indigent, the very people he promised to help. Now he never lets Airforce One cool off. I’m a flight attendant, and I have confirmed, that he is actually training more pilots for Airforce One, at Global Inflight Svcs., in Miami, Fl., I guess he is timing all the others out, enough already, where hasn’t he been!!
And shame on the Gov., what is he thinking is he trying to make, West U, and Bellaire sick over here, just because he doesn’t live here, I notice Austin isn’t de-funding their clinic. These are the kinds of programs, that keep the public safe, and give the indigent a place to get well.
Now, I voted for that fool (Perry), I have every time, and now he is taking away the very thing that separates us from the 3rd world countries. You men have no common sense!! If you have sick people running around, and pregnant people multiplying, then the economy is worth nothing. Tell him to get off of his fanny, and the rest of you, and pay attention to the big picture: click on this website and take a look at the wonderful programs they offer:
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-center/centerDetails.asp?f=2293&a=91650
What is wrong with Gov. Perry, just because he does not like abortions; I am not that crazy about them either, but what a woman wants to do with their body should be their choice.
But I am not writing about that, I just know they offer much more at that clinic than that, and the Gov. probably does not even know, does he really want our poor, and elderly, indigent sick, spreading who knows what, over here in Bellaire, and West University.
These people possibly have no where else to go, how cruel. I bet you or he would not leave your mother or loved ones, sick, and helpless.
Now my real issue, leave my bioidenticals alone, find a real issue like the economy, I have never written a politician, I have never cared much for them, but I am on the bandwagon for bioidenticals, and Estriol, that have been legal in Europe for years.
Why don’t you just make vitamins illegal, it is the same thing, all natural?? (joking)
And get rid of that Obamacare, why ruin a proven process, I can’t figure it out. I don’t think that crazy.
Also it is good your drilling I come from East Texas oil, so it’s about time we start drilling, in the Gulf, and get off healthcare, isn’t the economy more important. And tell that cheap, Gov. Perry to leave, any health clinic alone, and in fact stuff them with funds, so people can get proper care. He probably spends enough on a hunting trip in a weekend, and staffing that mansion, to pay for several clinics. And to think I was hoping he would run for President. He needs to get out his bible, and a copy of the Constitution, and read it.
Now start drilling, and the rest will take care of itself! You should always do the right thing, and that is to help out people that have less than you, the more you have, the more is expected!!
Pass that on the the Gov., and Pres.
And help the Bellaire, and West U sick people, come on what is wrong with you guys, I know you had to be raised better than that!
Good Day!
This is so upsetting.
How that sitting on your hands and doing nothing thingie working out for you ‘just say no’republicans?
I am a specialist who sees children with lung disease. I just started my practice but I am sitting in an office with no patients because I am waiting for the government (Medicare) and the private insurances to approve my application for credentialing (ie acceptance into their plan). I submitted my applications on April 20 or so. Medicare has not even gotten to my application yet (today is June 11). Also, this process makes no sense. I don’t plan on seeing any older patients on Medicare. I am a Pediatric Pulmonologist. But the government has set a process by which I have to get Medicare approval BEFORE I can even start applying for Medicaid. Makes no sense. Medicare is way behind. They are only on applications on April 5th as of today. As for the private insurances, they offered me terrible rates. They want to pay me less than Medicare. This whole system has something very wrong with it. I just want to see, evaluate, and take care of the children. Obama’s plan will do nothing more but create a system more like Medicare – slow, ineffective, and broke. Not sure if there is anything that can be done about this silly process.
Fighting Acute Myloid Leukemia is no fun. Even worse is the fear that my oncologist will soon no longer be able to treat me because my only insurance in through Medicare, which has deminished his payments to the point where he has warned me that he may soon no longer be able to accept me as a patient. As I understand it, this reduction in payments was a result of cuts instigaged by the Bush administration. I think cutting costs is all fine and good, but if you do it on the backs of my doctors, and they drop me, I am going to be unhappy.
Congressman Culberson:
It is an honor to have a dedicated man in the House who is dedicated to public service. So often, politics and the media cause average Americans to forget how much our elected representatives do for us. Before I get into the content of my letter, I want to thank you for serving this great country.
I work as a teacher at a Christian School and two years ago was diagnosed with primary generalized epilepsy. Most people do not understand that epilepsy is not treatable currently for over one thirds of the population who have it. So far, I have been in that 1/3 and my life has been topsy turvey.
It started out with one seizure and the doctors were confident that I would get better. 10 months later, I had a series of three seizures (one in which I broke my shoulder). This required surgery and physical therapy. I now have been having seizures every two months. The hospital has become my second home as I have undergone video EEG at St. Lukes and been to the emergency room more times than I can count.
At twenty-nine, I cannot drive and have missed more work this year than in all the other years combined. I must admit to myself that I am disabled.
One of the biggest issues beyond the physical limitations has been the issue of rising health costs. The fire department charges me, the hospital charges me, the doctors charge me and I pay highly inflated prices for prescriptions at the hospital. For a person who does not use a credit card, I am in major debt.
You are a leader in the Senate and a leading figure in healthcare reform opposition. I know that this increases our deficit. It is also incredibly apparent that it causes other problems, fiscally for our great nation. I am a middle class man who works hard in service to students.
I must admit that I am incredibly happy that the president’s plan passed. In my opinion, people with chronic conditions like epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, etc. shouldn’t be punished for something that was out of my control. The healthcare lobby is huge in Washington. Often, it makes reform incredibly difficult. If you were to change positions on healthcare, for the normal guy, I would vote for you and encourage others to. It is my main issue because it changes the way I live. I am not a statistic, nor a spreadsheet on a budget, but a man who is active in politics who loves America who will also campaign with lobbyists and candidates who believe real reform should take place. I would love to join your team and, believe me, I have a clear outspoken voice. I also give money to campaigns I believe in. Please weigh this with your constituents and your conscience. I know you are a good man.
Sincerely,
Matt Logan
I own and manage independent testing facilities and have for 15 years. Since the health bill has passed, I have received letters from 3 different insurance companies amending their rates to over 50% of their current contracted rates…way below medicare rates. We CAN not make these changes and therefore, will no longer see patients who carry that type of insurance…the start of healthcare decline….if you have greedy health care companies who are trying to get more profit from this health care bill, they will lower their contractual rates and say too bad too sad to the providers (which they have done for over 10 years). Therefore, you either take it or don’t see those patients. At some point the providers who have lower quality, who are not accredited, etc will take their rates and that is what our health care that is available to you and me will become with our required insurance.
The focus on the bigger health care package may have distracted many from the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2009 (HR 1691) that is currently before the House. It is intended to mandate that insurance companies cover a minimum 48 hour holpital stay following a mastectomy. Please vote for this important legislation and protect American women’s health.
Most of this bill is common sense stuff that is good for the public and relies on the free market to deliver. The only thing that I see (so far) that can be construed as government interference is the requirement, in 2014, for everyone to have health insurance. So, for the majority of people, nothing will change – they will continue to get insurance through their employer. I can only see the good in this bill in that it stops the insurance companies from taking advantage of folks. Even the insurance companies are for this health care bill. The only ones that I can detect are against health care are the ones who currently have health insurance and are ticked off because of the process that was used to enact health care into law. These ticked off folks should recall that, under Bush, reconciliation was used to enact the prescription drug entitlement – and how many billions of dollars was that entitlement?
My other beef is that it is difficult to call yourself a legislator if you do not participate in the legislative process – Republicans never seemed to offer meaningful amendments/language/suggestions and just saying ‘no’ to everything is not participating.
There are plenty of other good fights to be had out there and there is no shortage of ways that you can have a positive impact on your district – so, I will look for your name in one of those fights but not the health care fight.
Thank you for your continued fiscal responsibility including the NO vote on health care. I may lose my retiree medical from my employer because of ObamaCare and I can’t imagine that any other plan is going to pay $17,400/year for the drug that keeps my rheumatoid arthritis from crippling me. I’d be interested in knowing your reaction to Paul Ryan’s “Roadmap” for entitlement reform.
Keep up the good work.