Issue Position: Healthcare

Issue Position

Health Care

As a husband, father, grandfather and business owner, I understand well the importance of and the costs associated with having access to good health care. Unfortunately, the cost of medical care in America has skyrocketed, leaving some of our most vulnerable friends and neighbors having to make difficult health care choices for their families. Republicans and Democrats agree: we must find ways to provide health care choices to those with pre-existing conditions, young adults and those who are struggling to make ends meet.

Where we disagree is on the solutions. I believe the President's healthcare legislation, which was passed by Congress and signed into law in 2010, is the wrong solution because, it:

* Hits hard-working Americans and job creators with a mandatory tax disguised as an individual mandate, increasing costs and uncertainty for our families and small businesses;
* Imposes $800 billion in additional tax increases on Americans and small businesses;
* Cuts $500 billion from Medicare, putting senior care at risk, while adding to our nation's $15 trillion deficit;
* Creates an Independent Payment Advisory Board of 15 bureaucrats which will restrict health care choices for seniors;
* Infringes on Americans' religious freedoms.

For these reasons and others, I have and will continue to vote to repeal the President's healthcare bill and replace it with legislation that protects -- indeed elevates -- the patient-doctor relationship and ultimately ensures that individuals -- not the government -- maintain control of their health care. We must preserve any areas of common ground. For example, making it easier for individuals, including those with pre-existing conditions and young adults under the age of 26, to obtain and keep health insurance by making it portable across state-lines, and allowing those who like their current coverage to keep it.

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