Dr. Tom Price, representative for the 6th Congressional District of Georgia, said candidly in a late-afternoon conference call on Thursday, October 1st, that from where he sits, in the ‘cross-hairs’ of the health care debate, the ‘tide is turning’ because ‘people are waking up’ to the grim reality we as Americans face under a government-run health care system.
The chairman of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), a group of over one hundred and ten House Republicans organized for the purpose of advancing a conservative social and economic agenda in the House of Representatives, argued that it is not just the public-option proposal that stands to destroy the quality of health care in America, though it certainly remains the biggest topic of concern for conservative legislators. Two other specific areas of concern include the pay-or-play employer mandate as well as the idea, included in every single plan proposed by the Democrats, that decisions have to made by Washington and not between a patient and his doctor. Every single one of these proposals has the potential to do great harm to this country’s health care system.
Representative Price insisted that any health care reform legislators, Republican or Democrat, propose must be based on six principles – accessibility, affordability, quality, responsiveness, innovation, and choices.
The Georgia representative went on to say that Democrats are lying when they claim Republicans and conservatives are against any kind of health care reform and that they have not produced a single alternative solution to their proposals. He agrees with Congressional Democrats that our health care system is not perfect and that it contains serious problems that need to be addressed, although they are far different from anything they have in mind. Among the things we need to solve in health care system, Price says, includes fixing insurance problems, specifically the areas of portability and patients with pre-existing injuries who can’t get coverage, as well as the lawsuit abuse issue and the establishment of the patient/doctor relationship into law.
And, contrary to the claims made by the Democrats that House Republicans have offered up nothing in return for their proposals, the RSC to date has written up thirty-five health care-related laws or bills, including HR 3400, the Empowering Patients First Act. The bill addresses four main principles – access to coverage for all Americans, coverage truly owned by the patient, improvement of the health care delivery structure, and the reining in of out of control costs.
HR 3400 makes the purchase of health care financially feasible for all Americans, covers pre-existing conditions, protects employer-sponsored insurance, and shines light on existing health care plans. The legislation also grants a far greater choice and portability to the patient, gives employers more flexibility in the benefits they offer their employees, and expands the individual market through the creation of several pooling mechanism. The delivery structure is advanced thanks to the establishment of doctor-led quality measures and the reimbursement of physicians. And finally, the cost of the plan is offset through decreasing defensive medicine, savings from health care efficiencies, sifting out waste, fraud and abuse, plus an annual one-percent non defense discretionary spending step down.
Whatever politicians ultimately decide to move forward with in terms of reforming the nation’s health care system, Price firmly believes that we as American citizens have to ensure that that plan safeguards our ability to make our own medical decisions, not politicians on the Washington Beltway to make them for us. Entrenching the patient/doctor relationship, he believes, is the pulse of the health care issue.
