Question of the Week: Health Care

These questions are culled from phone calls, letters, faxes and e-mails sent to Rep. Gallegly's Thousand Oaks, Solvang, and Washington offices. Each week Rep. Gallegly adds another question and answer. Please add your comments.

Week ending January 21, 2011

Question: The House of Representatives voted to approve H.R. 2, which would repeal the Health Care Law. Will the law be replaced?

Answer: First, it is important to remember that H.R. 2 is only the first step, the bill now goes to the Senate. In the meantime, the House of Representatives also voted to require that House Committees that have jurisdiction over health care start drafting a new health care bill, which would:

• Foster economic growth and private sector job creation by eliminating job-killing policies and regulations;
• Lower health care premiums through increased competition and choice;
• Preserve a patient’s ability to keep his or her health plan if he or she likes it;
• Provide people with pre-existing conditions access to affordable health coverage;
• Reform the medical liability system to reduce unnecessary and wasteful health care spending;
• Increase the number of insured Americans;
• Protect the doctor-patient relationship;
• Provide the States greater flexibility to administer Medicaid programs;
• Expand incentives to encourage personal responsibility for health care coverage and costs;
• Eliminate duplicative government programs and wasteful spending;
• Do not accelerate the insolvency of entitlement programs or increase the tax burden on Americans.
• Permanently prevent Medicare from reducing physician pay. I have previously discussed this issue in my December 10, 2010, Question of the Week

For more information on my positions on health care issues, please see my Health Care issues page.

For previous Questions of the Week chronologically and by topic, please see my Questions of the Week page.