"It does not matter if it is the wrong policy for the country," Price said Friday at the Polk County Republicans' Lincoln Day Dinner.
Price, fifth-ranking Republican in Congress and chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, said the basic principles of any health care should be that the care is affordable, accessible and high quality.
"I add three to that: Responsive, innovative — and a system that encourages that — and is full of choices," said Price, a 20-year orthopedic surgeon and an assistant professor of surgery at Emory University.
Price, a third-generation physician, said the system passed under President Barack Obama violates all of those principles by raising costs, lowering accessibility and quality, and putting the federal government in charge of making it responsive and innovative.
Most of all, Price said, he opposes the individual mandate, that says each person must have health insurance.
"The government has no doggone business telling you what you must have," Price said.
He also said that the fees of fines against people who don't have insurance would be a tax "on what you don't do." "That's an incredible, very, very dangerous road we're on," Price said.
For that same reason, he opposes the Affordable Health Care Act, or any other form of government-run health care, including President Clinton's health care plan in the 1990s...(read more)
