Joe Pitts: “This amendment prevents funds from being used by the Department of Health and Human Services to implement rules…”

“This amendment prevents funds from being used by the Department of Health and Human Services to implement rules regarding ObamaCare's essential benefits package. As if ObamaCare's mandate that everyone must purchase health insurance wasn't enough, the law went one step further. The Federal Government will now tell every single American and business what their health plans must cover. To make matters worse, ObamaCare grants this unprecedented power to a single person. ObamaCare gives this power to the Secretary of Health and Human Services to determine which benefits are essential for patients, affecting every man, woman and child in America--not to mention that, the more benefits that HHS determines to be essential, the higher the premiums will be for coverage, thus increasing the overall cost for small businesses and families across America. The new powers of the Secretary are symptomatic of the vast expansion of Federal control that in many cases usurps State authority and limits private sector autonomy, innovations and its ability to function. This is bureaucracy at its finest, and it is most destructive.”