112th Congress - 6/28/2012
Congressman Jerry Lewis Disappointed by Supreme Court Health Care Ruling, Vows to Work for Repeal
 

Congressman Jerry Lewis Thursday expressed extreme disappointment with the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Healthcare Act as Constitutional. He repeated his commitment to repealing and replacing the unpopular law.

“While I respect the Supreme Court, I strongly disagree that it is constitutional to require every American to have government approved health insurance or face a tax penalty.  I agree with the four justices who wrote that that the law ‘exceeds federal power’.”

“The Court’s ruling, however, makes it clear that the Obama health reform clearly establishes a new tax, and puts the Internal Revenue Service in charge of penalizing people who do not buy health care.”

“The administration wants to hire 16,000 new IRS agents just to collect these massive new taxes. It is appalling to most Americans that this health care plan puts even more power in the hands of the IRS.”

“Now that the court has ruled, we must still face the fact that health reform creates a massive new government program that will lead to government-run health care, add trillions to the national debt and kill job creation.”

“We have started down the path to government-run health care, a path that could be a disaster for small business and taxpayers. Not to mention the overwhelming majority of Americans who have said they want to keep their current health-care plans.”

“The final decision is now in the hands of American voters. They elected a House of Representatives in 2010 that proved willing and able to repeal Obamacare. We in the House have voted numerous times to restrict the health care law, and we will vote again next month to repeal it entirely. None of these reforms has passed the Senate, however. It is up to the voters to once again express their views by changing the makeup of the Senate.”

Lewis supports a plan that would allow individuals to buy health care across state lines, create insurance pools to help small businesses buy affordable policies for their employees, and establish new limits to the kinds of junk lawsuits that cause doctors to practice expensive “defensive” medicine. It would prevent denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions.