On the recordJanuary 20, 2011
Thank you for yielding time. Madam Speaker, the repeated diatribe from Members on the other side of the aisle that somehow they are the only individuals in this Chamber who care about the health of American families demonstrates again the deep-seated partisanship that we must work to defeat. We all want great health care in America. We hear the American people loud and clear. They don't like ObamaCare, but they do want something to be done. We must have real national tort reform to reduce the costs of defensive medicine. We must encourage medical innovation to deal with the FDA approval process that covers any new discovery in paperwork, costing $1 billion a drug just to get it through the FDA process. We must open up more options for insurance carriers, allowing someone who is frustrated with the service or the cost or quality of his carrier to fire them and to get a new insurance provider. We must reject price fixing as a cost-cutting solution. We must allow every American to choose their own doctors, even pay their doctors directly if they choose to do that. We must give senior Americans more choices in physicians who accept Medicare patients. We must provide States with greater flexibility; and we must deal with portability, high risk, and preexisting conditions. Republicans have friends and family who are dealing with the same medical issues that Democrats deal with. Suffering, disease, and pain have no respect for political affiliation.
