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Congresswoman Virginia Foxx

On the final day Congress was in session last month the House narrowly passed a historic energy bill that included what some are calling the largest tax increase in history.  Now it appears that the House will turn its attention to our healthcare system. 

President Obama has voiced his strong desire for Congress to pass legislation this year that addresses healthcare.  So far the legislation that has been drafted has illustrated one thing—a government takeover of our healthcare system would be extremely expensive.

The proposals offered to date will cost somewhere in the ballpark of $1.6 trillion.  Someone’s going to have to pay for it.  The options aren’t very encouraging.  You might end up paying much higher taxes.  In fact, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee has said that taxing families’ existing healthcare benefits is very much on the table.  He recently said that taxing employee health insurance is “perhaps the best way to raise money for an overhaul of the health-care system.”  

And if we don’t see a massive tax hike, we’ll end up borrowing to cover the cost of an overhaul.  That means your grandchildren will repay China the money we borrow from them to pay our healthcare tab.  

I am in favor of reforming the healthcare system so that you get more out of your healthcare: more access to more treatments and more doctors with less interference from insurance companies and Washington politicians and special interests. 

But when my liberal friends in Washington talk about the need for reform they are talking about more bureaucrats, more top-down Washington control and—this is key—less healthcare for you.  Make no mistake, we need reform that puts you back in the driver’s seat, not the kind of reform that means a government takeover that puts a bureaucrat in the driver’s seat with the power to decide what treatment you can and cannot receive.

Under some of the healthcare plans being touted in Washington we’d exchange a healthcare system in need of reform for one even worse.  That’s a whole new healthcare crisis. 

After all, if a government takeover of healthcare means you can’t get the treatment you need, when you need it, you have a very real crisis.  If you are denied the ability to choose the doctor or hospital that’s best for you, then you have a crisis.  If you can’t afford the coverage you need for you and your family, then you have a crisis. 

This is why we must address our healthcare challenges with great care.  We can find immediate and measureable ways to make it more accessible and affordable without injecting layers of dehumanizing bureaucrats that jeopardize quality, individual choice or personalized care.  And most importantly we should take great pains to protect your doctor-patient relationship from the Washington one-size-fits-all solutions. 

The solution to the rising cost of healthcare lies in ferreting out waste and fraud and giving you control of your healthcare—not bureaucrats and not Washington special interests looking to push their agenda.  You and your doctor should be making the healthcare decisions instead of a Washington bureaucracy.

As a matter of principle, every American should have access to affordable, quality healthcare.  But today the biggest threat to the success of our healthcare system is the skyrocketing cost of care. 

Some people think that the way to address this threat is a Washington takeover of your relationship with your doctor where the government tells you what treatment you can or cannot have.  That may sound good until you get a letter from Washington informing you that you’ve been denied a procedure or medication because it’s not approved. 

Not approved by who?  A bureaucrat, not your doctor.

A panel that looks at healthcare from Washington’s perspective will lack the flexibility to address the needs of North Carolina patients. The ultimate power to decide the best treatment needs to remain with you and your physician.   

America should strive to offer the most people the highest quality, most timely healthcare in the world.  I believe there are some guiding principles that we must keep in mind as we pursue healthcare reform. 

To begin, patients should not have to wait weeks for the tests they need or months for vital treatments.   Additionally, no one should be denied treatment he or she needs because of government limits, restrictions or rationing.  And no Washington bureaucrat should interfere in the doctor patient relationship.  Finally, you have the right to know all the information about your health condition and treatment options.

As we prepare for a reform of our healthcare system, we should follow these commonsense principles and focus on patient-centered healthcare—not government-centered healthcare.