It has been just two years since President Obama signed his health care bill into law and people across Central and Southside Virginia – and across this country – are seeing that the President’s health care law is the wrong prescription for our nation’s ailing health care system. Americans now face higher premiums and increased taxes at a time we can least afford it; mandates that challenge the very foundations of our democracy; and no greater access to the affordable, quality care that was promised.

The President’s health care law has provided a path for unprecedented expansion in the size and scope of the federal government, adding trillions of dollars to the national debt and digging deeper into the deficit. And this law fundamentally represents an ideology contrary to the values that this great country was founded upon, placing greater trust in the government than in the American people.

That is why, for the past year that I have had the privilege of serving Virginia’s 5th District in the United States Congress, I have worked with my colleagues in the House of Representatives to repeal this law both in its entirety and in its partiality. The House has voted on over 20 separate occasions to repeal or defund all or part of the law and replace it with fiscally sustainable, market-based solutions:

• H.R. 2 – Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act (Full repeal of the law with instruction for committees to draft a replacement).

• H.R. 4 – Repealing the Small Business Paperwork Mandate to provide regulatory relief to small businesses. H.R. 4 was signed into law by the President.

• H.R. 371 –The Health Care Choice Act – Allows for the sale of health insurance across state lines and promotes consumer choice and competition among insurance providers to lower health care costs.

• H.R. 1173 – Repeal the CLASS Act Provision after the Administration admitted the program was financially unsustainable

• H.R. 1213 & H.R. 1214 – Eliminating Slush Funds For Money To Be Used By The Department of Health and Human Services – Which Is Unaccountable To the American People – Without Congressional Oversight

• H.R. 5 – the Protecting Access To Health Care Act – this bill will repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a panel of 15 unelected government bureaucrats that will have the ability to interfere with our senior’s care choices, make drastic unaccountable cuts to Medicare, and enable the government to dictate care choices to our seniors, rather than our seniors being in control of their own health care.

Though the House has made great strides toward repeal of this law, we cannot move forward as a nation and enact sensible replacements until the law is repealed in its entirety. I remain committed to continuing to work towards repealing this law and enacting fiscally sustainable alternatives – the President’s health care law is bad for patients, bad for taxpayers, bad for American business, and bad for Virginia’s 5th District.

Stories About The President’s Health Care Law From 5th District Virginians

My many stops and meetings throughout the 5th District have painted a clear picture of the concerns 5th District Virginians have regarding the most pressing issues facing our country today. Many of these concerns revolve around the uncertainty and the negative impacts the President’s health care law has on our citizens. These policies put forth in Washington have very real effects on the people that I represent in the 5th District. This law places undue burdens on our convenience store owners, our care providers, our families, individuals, and our small businesses; the lifeblood of our economy and those who do not deserve the additional burdens that this over-reaching law has caused – their stories are below:

• CRIPPLING THE ENTREPRENERUIAL SPIRIT/REDUCING ACCESS TO CARE

A 5th District physician who has a small business that he built from the ground up, which serves and provides affordable quality care to over 16,000 patients in the area and employs over 30 people, is now in jeopardy due to the President’s health care law. Due to the uncertainty caused by tax hikes and the costs of additional regulations, he is now unsure if he can continue to sustain his business. This means that over 16,000 in the area could lose their access to affordable, quality care, over 30 people could lose their jobs, and one man could lose his dream – his business that he has invested his time, resources, and care into so that he could serve others.

• PREVENTING JOB CREATION AND DISCOURAGING EMPLOYERS TO PROVIDE COVERAGE

A convenience store owner in Campbell County who has five stores and 48 employees has the desire and the resources to expand, but won’t for fear of the costs he would incur based on provisions in the President’s health care law. This man wants to build two more convenience stores and create new jobs in the 5th District, but he is unwilling to do so because of the mandates and taxes that will be imposed on his business as a part of the job-destroying government takeover of health care – they could put him out of business.