Washington, D.C.– Representative Charles Boustany (R-Southwest Louisiana) today vote to repeal the Health Care law passed by the Democratic-controlled Congress in 2010.

“This vote is the first step to dismantling the damage caused by President Obama’s health care law, which passed last year despite objections from most Americans,” Boustany said.  “I hope that my colleagues in the Senate will join with us in overturning this terrible law.  We need to overturn this and replace it with commonsense solutions that actually lower health costs and keep personal medical decisions in the hands of patients and doctors.”

During the debate, Rep. Boustany spoke on the floor of the House in favor of repealing the law:

Thank you Madame Speaker.

I rise in favor of repeal of this bill, because it's going to fail on cost, it's going to fail on coverage and it's going to fail on quality.

First cost.  Premiums are going up. In fact, they're going up even higher at a faster rate than they would have if we'd done nothing, in many cases.

With regard to the deficit, there are a number of gimmicks in this bill, double counting, excluding the doc fix, creating new entitlements such as the CLASS Act, which is a ponzi scheme. 

Finally, it does not account for the discretionary spending for this massive increase in the bureaucracy that's going to be created. Taxes are going to go up on innovation, especially medical innovation.

On coverage, what kind of coverage are we expanding? Medicaid coverage. That's a ticket to the emergency room, it doesn't lead to a good doctor-patient relationship and it's ultimately the most expensive and inefficient way to provide health care. And those costs are going to be passed on to the states.

On quality, let me relate an instance from my own medical practice as a cardiovascular surgeon.

I was once called to see a patient who was 101 years old. 101. He had artery blockage and was getting ready to have a stroke. He had imminent symptoms. I was skeptical. I went to see the guy. This fellow was vigorous, strong handshake, lived by himself, independent, working his own yard, took care of himself without any help. And so I chose to do the operation on him. Thankfully it was successful. It gave him six more years of high quality life as a result of this. But in the absence of that, he would have had a stroke, he'd have been in rehab, in a nursing home, acute care, lots of expense. No quality to his life.

Madam Speaker, there's an art and a science to medicine, and the art involves a doctor-patient relationship. It's built on mutual trust and understanding, knowledge of the patient, trust on both the patient and the doctor's part to do what's in the best interest of the patient.

Not only that, the doctor-patient relationship is where costs are incurred and quality occurs.

This gentleman would not have had the quality of life if he had not had this operation and if this law had been in existence which would have delayed or prohibited such treatment.

I yield back.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WZm5aLUn_w

###