Press Releases
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts today released the following statement regarding the President’s address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress on Health Care Reform:
"The President has said the time for action is now, the health care debate is over.
"We agree that many Americans struggle to pay for health care and it is a critical challenge for our nation.
"I have taken a hard look at the proposals before the Congress and I will not support ill-considered legislation that hurts those it intends to help. Many of the proposals will have dire consequences for patients – denying access to quality, affordable health care, raising taxes and rationing care. The unprecedented cost of a public plan will have a staggering effect on our economy.
"The Administration claims these plans are bipartisan, that they are reaching out to Republicans, but our advice and counsel has largely been shut out of this debate. In fact, Republicans were left out of writing the Senate HELP Committee bill.
"I urge Kansans to do your health care homework, talk to your doctor, your employer, nurses, pharmacists, home health providers -- all of the people you rely on for your family’s health care. They have told me, and will tell you, that these bills are bad for Kansas and bad for America.
"We should adopt a thoughtful, step-by-step approach to health care reform that includes:
Preventing health insurers from denying coverage for people with pre-existing conditions;
Ensuring patients have choices when it comes to picking health care providers;
Finding state-based...rather than federal government-run...solutions to cover the uninsured and to protect patients from catastrophic health care costs;
Changing the tax code to enable people without access to employer-sponsored health insurance to deduct their premiums;
Providing incentives for individual responsibility that allow insurers to reward healthy behaviors;
Improving transparency in health care quality and costs so that patients have more information on how to best spend their health care dollar; and
Reducing health care costs overall through reform of our medical liability system."
Senator Roberts is a member of two key committees considering health care reform, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and the Senate Committee on Finance. He is co-chairman of the Senate Rural Health Caucus.
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