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August 4, 2009
Congressman Poe Says NO to Government Run Health Care! Washington - I firmly believe the best government is a limited government – and this is especially true when it comes to health care. More government equals more problems. I support a plan that relies on a few basic principles: patients have control over their health care decisions, not bureaucrats; coverage is affordable, accessible and portable, regardless of job change or loss; patients and small businesses are allowed to unite to increase their purchasing power; patients have access to the highest quality care available regardless of pre-existing conditions; and a safety-net for catastrophic illnesses that exceed coverage limits. In addition, I support tax credits for health care expenses – not tax increases. There must be provisions for medical liability reform in order to reduce costs for both patients and doctors. The current proposal not only would require a tax increase to pay for it, but it will also tax health care benefits and fail to protect doctors from practicing costly defensive medicine. Reform must also include eliminating the estimated $65-200 billion in fraud and waste in the current Medicare and Medicaid programs is also essential. I do not support a “one-size-fits-all” plan that would eliminate individual freedom of choice, force Americans into a government-run health care system and lead to rationing of services. I will NOT support a bill that gives decision-making power to a 25-year-old bureaucrat over a medical doctor. We cannot move to a system that doesn’t allow our baby boomers and beyond care because some bureaucrat decides their quality of life factor doesn’t meet “the standards.” The Administration’s plan increases the cost of health care for everyone, forces millions of Americans to lose their current health care coverage and dramatically increases the deficit. It will cost over $1 trillion and create 53 new permanent bureaucracies over the next ten years – and that’s just an estimate. When has the federal government ever spent LESS than expected? If you think its expensive now, wait until it’s free. To read Congressman Poe's recent floor speeches on this important issue, see the full release. - Full Release - 
July 30, 2009
YOU'RE JUST TOO OLD Mr. Speaker, when government runs health care, senior citizens sometimes are refused treatment because of their age. In Sweden, an 83-year-old woman was refused medical surgery by the government-run hospital. They said she was just too old for treatment. Marianne Skogh had pain and numbness in her legs for 5 years. She waited more than a year trying to get approval for back surgery to cure the problem. She was rejected by the government. Without the operation, she would be living in incredible turmoil. She said, ``What kind of life is that?'' Despite her long wait, Marianne was told her ailment was treatable but she was just too old for surgery. The government-run hospital said since she had previous heart surgery, they were denying her the back surgery. They told her just to take some pain pills. When the pain pills didn't help, the government still wouldn't let her have the surgery. Marianne ended up paying for the operation herself with some private funds and funds she received from friends. She's now pain-free. Government-run health care lets bureaucrats decide who receives rationed care and who doesn't, who lives and who just dies. And that's just the way it is. - Full Release - July 28, 2009 SITTING ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD Mr. Speaker, Sammy Mahan is a small business entrepreneur. He owns and operates Sammy's Wrecker Service in Baytown, Texas. He owns 7 trucks, employs 5 drivers, a dispatcher, and people who work the wrecker yard. His drivers work on a commission, and he cannot afford to furnish them health insurance. He told me how the new government health care plan that mandates employers provide employee health benefits would affect him. Leaving out his colorful language, he said, ``I am worried to death. This government health care bill and the new taxes on energy and small business will ruin me. I will have to lay off my drivers. They're all young, some with young families, and then they will have no jobs. I will be the lone survivor of the business. Then I won't be able to sell the wreckers I can't use. Who would buy them? I will be putting the trucks on the side of the road next to the kids who have signs saying `free kittens' and offering `free wreckers.' '' Now, Sammy has a point. The government-run health care plan will cost jobs and put workers on the street or, shall we say, sitting on the side of the road. And that's just the way it is. - Full Release - July 27, 2009 HEALTH CARE THIEVES Mr. Speaker, it's time to put common sense into health care reform. The first thing to do is focus on current fraud and waste. The part of health care that the government already runs, like Medicare and Medicaid, wastes billions of dollars every year, and billions more are lost through fraud. The national health care antifraud system says Medicare fraud costs American taxpayers $68 billion every year. The FBI says health care fraud may be as high as 10 percent of costs, which means the crooks and the cheats are stealing $226 billion a year from taxpayers. That's money that should be going to treat the sick and the disabled. Now taxacrats want to hand all of our health care money over to the bureaucrats. Law enforcement needs to go after Medicare and Medicaid cheats before we consider nationalized health care. We can save billions of dollars on health care by simply sending the crooks to jail. Fix the obvious stealing and waste before we encourage more fraud and abuse under a universal government-run health care system. And that's just the way it is. - Full Release - July 23, 2009 MAYO CLINIC OPPOSED HEALTH CARE BILL Madam Speaker, let me say this, that the Mayo Clinic opposes this health care bill because it's nonsense, it costs too much, and it's going to put America more in debt. And that's just the way it is. - Full Release - July 22, 2009 HEALTH CARE BILL Mr. Speaker, the administration is demanding that Congress pass nationalized health care before we go back to our districts for the August work period. They said it's urgent, that we have to do it or it will be the end of health care in America forever. That's what was said about the Wall Street bailout. Congress had to pass the Wall Street bailout in 24 hours or we were all going to die. And it passed. And it's a miserable failure. Next came the so-called stimulus bill. It was over a thousand pages long, filed in the darkness of night. Nobody had a chance to read it. We were told we had to vote on it immediately or the world would end. Well, none of that happened. The stimulus bill, too, was a disaster for our country. Hasn't Congress learned its lesson that quickly passing legislation because Presidents say so is a bad idea? Most Americans don't like this health care bill. They don't want it. It's going to raise taxes. So what's the rush? We need to get health care right instead of just getting it done. The very lives of the American people depend on it. Besides, the administration's current health care bill is a sick solution for America. And that's just the way it is. - Full Release - 
Courtesy of Congressman Brady |
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