On the recordMarch 24, 2017
We are faced with an unenviable choice of the fact that there is infinite demand for health care. There is no top on the amount of healthcare cost necessary to provide all the health care that we want for everybody in this country, and we have limited resources within which to do that. The real question is: Does ObamaCare take up that task by asking government to make those hard choices, or do we as individuals and families and caregivers make those harder choices for ourselves? I believe that the bill that we will get to vote on today moves us toward that direction. This isn't about health care, per se; this is about how do you pay for it. Insurance is not a magic bullet anywhere across the spectrum. Insurance is simply a scheme in which we risk-manage together. We put a certain amount of money into a bucket, assuming not all of us will suffer the risks that we want to cover. If we do, we have got to put more money in; if we don't, then the system works. This is about having to confront that choice that there is way too much cost for the amount of resources that are available in any of these circumstances, and it is hard. Many of my constituents ask: Why did Republicans spend 6 years railing against ObamaCare and not have the fix available on Inauguration Day? Well, this is Exhibit A. This is hard stuff. Even among Republicans, we have got more than 218 votes among us, and we can't agree among ourselves necessarily what ought to go forward.…
