Health Care

The quality of health care in the United States is second to none. In the last century, America has pioneered the frontiers of health care by mapping the human genome, eradicating polio, and performing the first lung transplant.

However, skyrocke­ting costs and the accessibility to care for all who need it have remained serious challenges, looming larger with each passing day. Doctors are having a hard time keeping their doors open, patients have lost their ability to choose their doctors and specialists, millions of people still go without insurance and through it all costs continue to rise.

We need real health care reform that will increase access and make it more affordable without compromising quality and the doctor-patient relationship. We need a health care system that does not discriminate through higher healthcare premiums for healthy people over the age of 50.  

Unfortunately, the Affordable Care Act—Obamacare—has failed to accomplish such common-sense goals; in fact, it's made matters worse. Constituents in the 14th District and across the country have lost the health insurance they liked and have been shoved into narrow networks where their doctors are no longer covered. Even leading Democrats on Capitol Hill have acknowledged the law is a "train wreck."

I have consistently supported efforts to replace Obamacare with health care policies that maintain quality, control costs, and preserve what people like about their coverage.

Opening up insurance markets beyond state lines, finding bipartisan agreement on lawsuit abuse reform and encouraging businesses and families to make informed decisions regarding their health care options are just a few of the bedrock principles we are fighting for in Washington.

With modern technology, we should be able to compare health care costs between providers, craft insurance plans that will best cover our families and employees, and pool small business plans and individual purchasers, thereby defraying risk and lowering overall costs.

Unfortunately, Obamacare remains the law of the land. But we will keep fighting its implementation on the basis that it hurts families, weakens the quality and accessibility of health care and drives up costs that Americans simply cannot afford. I will fight to maintain coverage for preexisting conditions and work to Obamacare with a solution that truly reforms our healthcare system and helps middle class families and individuals.

Key actions taken:

Hosted a Community Leadership Forum on Health Care to bring stakeholders together to share information and work together to tackle Illinois’ health care challenges. View the report here.

FoxNews.com op-ed: “No Republican alternatives to ObamaCare? Think again.”

Cosponsored and voted for passage of H.R. 3474, the Hire More Heroes Act of 2013

• Encourages small businesses to hire veterans by providing relief from the Affordable Care Act’s burdensome employer mandate.

Cosponsored and voted for passage of H.R. 3350, the Keep Your Health Plan Act of 2013

• Protects Americans whose plans have been canceled as a result of the healthcare law.
• Ensures Americans who have health plans available on the market now would be able to keep them and that Americans who keep their current health plans would not face a penalty under the President’s healthcare law.

Voted for H.R. 4015, the SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act

• Enacts a long-term fix to the formula that reimburses physicians who serve patients on Medicare
• Earlier in the year, joined a bipartisan initiative urging House leaders to permanently repeal the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula this year