111th Congress

"This ruling clearly demonstrates one of the most significant problems with the legislation, which I will continue to aggressively fight in the upcoming Congress. It is wrong for the federal government to mandate that Americans purchase more expensive Washington-approved coverage. This court decision is a step in the right direction towards repealing Obamacare and replacing it with commonsense, affordable solutions."

"While the lifting of this moratorium is long overdue, the real proof will be how quickly drilling is allowed to resume."

"The CLASS Act is yet another problem in President Obama's 2,000 plus page health care law," said Boustany. "Billed as a long-term care benefit program, Congressional Democrats raided the CLASS Act before if began to pay for other aspects of the trillion dollar new law. Once implemented, the CLASS Act will quickly run deficits, requiring taxpayer funding to bailout the program. The Fiscal Responsibility and Retirement Security Act forces Congress to re-evaluate the CLASS Act and reject the program if it fails to achieve fiscal stability."

"Medicare remains a critical safety net for seniors throughout Louisiana, but Washington Democrats decided to raid Medicare by $500 billion to pay for the new health care law rather than focusing on lower costs," Boustany said. "More and more information continues to come to light about President Obama's new health law and how the cuts will affect access to care of America's seniors. Even an ad campaign with Andy Griffith cannot sugarcoat the Medicare cuts in President Obama's massive new law. This year, Medicare took in less than it paid out, and without responsible reforms, Medicare will face bankruptcy."

"Recently, the Congressional Budget Office and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services reported health costs for families and for seniors will rise even higher due to the massive, new health law. Today's YouCut vote helps to stop one of the major problems with the new health law, and it could save taxpayers across the country between five and ten billion dollars."

"Millions of seniors across Louisiana depend on Medicare to help with their rising health care costs, and the CMS report confirms the disturbing $500 billion raid on Medicare in the President's new health care law to pay for new programs," Boustany said.

"As a doctor, I know Americans struggle with health costs, and Congress could act to help lower their premiums and overall costs," said Boustany. "Unfortunately, Congressional Democrats and the President decided to ram through a deeply-flawed overhaul that will cause premiums for families to rise even faster. The American people rejected the Democrats' bill and their heavy-handed approach. I will work to fix the unintended consequences as we move forward."

"Under the Senate's individual mandate, the IRS would be in charge of verifying that every American taxpayer has obtained acceptable health coverage for every month of the year. If the IRS determines that a taxpayer lacks acceptable insurance for even a single month, then the IRS would have the power to impose a new tax on that taxpayer, even auditing the taxpayer and assessing interest and penalties on top of the tax. This is an unprecedented new role for the IRS – one that will inject the IRS even further into the personal lives of American families."

"The President's new proposals still add up to more than $1 trillion in new spending, $500 billion in new taxes and nearly a half trillion raid of Medicare, which the American people continue to reject," said Boustany. "We need a commonsense approach, but these 2,000 plus page bills simply aren't the way to lower health care costs or put patients in control. Congressional leaders and the President need to scrap these overhaul proposals, and begin with bipartisan approaches from the start."

"Most Democrats, Independents and Republicans do agree on 80 percent of the solutions to bring down health care costs, but these bills focus where we disagree," said Boustany. "Rather, we should scrap these bills, like the American people want us to, and focus on bringing down health costs. As a doctor, I know people want to buy insurance across state lines, pool together to get a better price and limit frivolous lawsuits - all of these will lower costs, and they can be done in a simple way. Unfortunately, Democrats' 2,000+ page bills complicate health care instead of lowering costs when families struggle to make ends meet."

"As a doctor, I saw firsthand the difficulties patients face in our health care system, and I continue to work with my colleagues to address the most pressing problem, which is lowering health care costs for all Americans," said Boustany. "I am hopeful the President will listen to the bipartisan solutions we advocate. Health care is too important to simply rush through a glossy, 2,000 plus page bill. We need to scrap the current bills and start with commonsense solutions to lower health care costs."

"I will continue to work with my colleagues in Congress to put forth bipartisan solutions, but the President's State of the Union ignored what voters in Massachusetts expressed just one week ago. The American people want focused solutions to deal with the problems we face. We can get our economy going and create jobs again, and we can lower health care costs for families. The President's rhetoric and actions simply fail to put us on that path."

If congressional Democrats are serious about reaching a bipartisan consensus, they should scrap the current House and Senate measures and work toward common-sense solutions.

"All human life is precious, and those who came to Washington this week demonstrated that in a very real way," Boustany said. "The health care debate reminds us of the importance of giving a voice to those who have none. As a doctor, I saw the value of each life and bring those experiences to Congress. I appreciate those across Louisiana who work to improve the lives of pregnant women and their unborn children during the March for Life and throughout the year."

"Writing a massive, trillion-dollar health-care bill in the dark, as Congressional Democrats and this Administration are doing, leads to unintended consequences, favored special interests and continues a broken system in Washington," Boustany said. "The President needs to make good on his promise to make these negotiations public. If Congressional Democrats have nothing to hide in this massive health-care overhaul, C-Span should be allowed to televise the process for the American public. The President made a promise to allow C-Span to broadcast the negotiations, and he should keep his word to the American people."

"Many seniors will probably see their benefits cut or higher premiums, including more than 140,000 seniors in my home state of Louisiana, who depend on Medicare. The Senate bill cuts more than $135 billion from hospitals serving seniors. It cuts $40 billion from home health agencies, $15 billion from nursing homes and nearly $8 billion from Hospices – all important services our seniors depend on."

"Senators can stop this massive health care overhaul proposed by Sen. Reid by voting against the motion to proceed on this bad piece of legislation," Boustany said. "The bill Sen. Reid put out will raise health care costs for families and businesses in Louisiana, raise taxes on millions and cut health care for our seniors by almost half a trillion dollars. That's not commonsense reform, so why would anyone vote to proceed to debate? Instead, Senators Landrieu and Vitter should oppose this bill and work to achieve a bi-partisan, broadly supported bill to actually lower health care costs."

"Breast cancer remains the second leading cause of cancer death among women," said Boustany. "The USPSTF admits that screening below the recommended age of 50 still saves lives. As federally funded comparative-effective research such as this becomes more widely available, patient safeguards are needed to ensure that government-run programs don't misuse this data to deprive individuals of medically-necessary care due to cost. Medical decisions need to be made by patients and their doctors. Today's announcement highlights the need to strengthen the doctor-patient relationship for women and all Americans."

"H.R. 3962, House Democrats' government-run health care overhaul, will increase health care costs for millions of Americans, tax Americans struggling with a tough economy and cut health care benefits to millions of seniors," Boustany said.

"Throughout the summer and fall, a majority of Americans have repeatedly expressed outrage over the attempts of Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats to ram a massive health care bill through Congress," Boustany said. "We can achieve meaningful health care reform to bring down the cost of health care, but the House Democrats' proposal, H.R. 3962 isn't the right way. I appreciate hearing from and seeing people from Southwest Louisiana in Washington as this debate continues."

"House Republicans believe we can lower health care costs for families and small businesses, and these solutions are a critical first step," Boustany said.

"Democratic leaders in the House propose a plan that would significantly increase health care costs for millions of Americans and prevent millions from keeping their current insurance if they like it," Boustany said.

"This Congress can pass meaningful reform soon to reduce some of the fear and anxiety families are feeling in these very difficult times. Working together in a bipartisan way, we can truly lower the cost of health care while improving quality for the American people.

"This budget will cost Southwest Louisiana and the Gulf Coast jobs," Boustany said. "It's that plain and simple. Dramatically hiking taxes on America's energy producers will force jobs overseas and some companies to close. That's an irresponsible budget in the face of a slowing national economy and a coast that continues to recover. What's worse, the budget will allow Washington Democrats to implement changes in our healthcare system without any of the normal checks and balances. This is a tax hike on working families and terrible policy."

"As Americans struggle with a slowing economy, we, as a nation, must work together to address rising healthcare costs," Boustany said. "First and foremost, if a family likes their healthcare coverage, they should be able to keep it. The Commonwealth Fund's proposal would push 119 million Americans from their current coverage to a government-run program according to a nonpartisan research group. We should make meaningful changes that would lower healthcare costs for all Americans and increase access for people currently without health insurance."

"All human life is precious, and those who came to Washington today demonstrated that in a very real way," Boustany said. "The annual March for Life is a show of support for some of the neediest members of our society. I appreciate those across Louisiana who work to improve the lives of pregnant women and their unborn children."

"I proudly support S-CHIP, so we must ensure our children are getting the quality healthcare they need," Boustany said. "S-CHIP, or LaCHIP in Louisiana, offers important healthcare access for children whose parents are working but are unable to afford ever increasing health insurance costs. My amendment simply urges states to report on their success getting children on S-CHIP to see a doctor. Seeing a doctor and developing a doctor-patient relationship allows children to get better care at a cheaper cost rather than simply going to an emergency room."