Michael Burgess

There are serious problems. There are serious fractures and we have been charged with fixing them.

I didn't give up a career in health care to come sit on the sidelines.

I was frozen out by the then-chairman of this committee, Henry Waxman.

I contacted the transition team in 2008 and I said, 'Look, I didn't give up a 25-year medical career to come sit on the sidelines while you guys do this. Talk to me. I am willing to talk to you.'

I think we should have.

This is a good subcommittee, a great subcommittee. We are up to the task, and we will deliver.

Let's find a way to really come together and do the right thing for the American people and not just the political thing.

I hope we get a chance to rectify things someday.

We shouldn't allow for the system to be manipulated where physicians and hospitals actually don't receive the compensation for the care that they provide.

We need to get this right. And right now the bill that we have isn't even close.

I don't feel like they bring any value whatsoever to the healthcare system. They only raise prices and cause them to rise.

I really feel like this is hindering the competition in a number of different ways.

We want to make health care accessible, we want to make it affordable and we want to cut out the red tape.

How do we get back to where we are competing? I often tell the story that right now Adam Smith is rolling over in his grave to see what we have done to the free market in health care.

We are here to help all Americans-insured, uninsured, and functionally uninsured-to get access to quality, affordable health care.

I am confident we can continue to advance bills through an open and through an inclusive process.

Promises were made to voters that the healthcare system would get back on track.

Our system is plagued with problems that impose the highest burden on individuals and consumers.

We want people to get access to quality affordable health care.

I hope that we can keep this on a civil and unemotional level going forward. This is important work that we do and it is literally the future of our country.

The very fact that we are holding this hearing today as the first Subcommittee of Health hearing, I think, is evidence of that fact and I hope we can continue to take these steps and have the discussion in a rational manner.

The days of putting overbearing, unaccountable Washington bureaucrats and their tens of thousands of pages of regulations first are over.

We will modernize America's health care laws by putting what's best for the patient as our top priority.

We can empower states to innovate, to harness savings and enhance the actual health of the patients.

We recognize the Medicaid program is a critically important safety net for millions of Americans.