After a principled “no” vote today on behalf of the 9th Congressional District of Missouri, U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-9) condemned the passage of the disastrous Democratic House health care bill that will raise taxes, increase health care costs, add to our national debt and hurt America’s seniors, families and small businesses.

 “By forcing this mammoth overhaul on hard-working Americans, Nancy Pelosi and the liberal majority are creating a health care system that increases taxes on small businesses, reduces benefits and choices for seniors, and piles insurmountable debt upon our children. Republicans have offered a more responsible, incremental approach to improve our health care system in a way that controls cost and provides the quality of care that Americans deserve. The more we learn about the Democrats’ House plan, the more disturbing it is and I will continue to fight to the best of my ability to halt this misguided plan from becoming a reality.”

After the reckless spending binge that this Congress has been engaged in this year, the bottom line is that the American taxpayers simply cannot afford the Pelosi health care bill. Pelosi’s $1.3 trillion health care bill will not only add to our nation’s deficit but pass more debt on to future generations. Luetkemeyer believes that is wrong and supported the Republican alternative health care plan that will lower health care costs. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirmed that under the Republican plan, American families will see their health care premiums reduced by up to 10 percent and hard-working taxpayers can expect deficits to decrease by $68 billion over the next decade.

Doctors across the country are practicing defensive medicine, which means in many cases they are being forced to order more and more costly, unneeded tests because of the very real fear that they will have to protect themselves against the frivolous claim that they did not do enough to protect and treat a patient. Unfortunately, the Pelosi Plan is not serious about tort reform. The plan establishes an incentive program for states to adopt and implement alternatives to medical liability litigation. However, a state is not eligible for the incentive payments if that state puts a law on the books that limits attorneys’ fees or imposes caps on damages.

Pelosi’s plan includes cuts to Medicare Advantage.  Medicare Advantage is widely supported by the seniors who participate because of the program’s choice and affordability.  Seniors in Medicare Advantage save, on average, more than $800 a year in health care.  Yet these harmful and arbitrary cuts will result in health care plans dropping out of the program, undermining beneficiary choice and causing millions of seniors to lose their current coverage. 

The nonpartisan CBO has testified before Congress that the Democrats’ health care plan will actually increase health care costs.

Luetkemeyer voted in favor of the Stupak Amendment, which will protect Americans from being forced to finance abortions.

Luetkemeyer supports reforming our health care system but does not support a government takeover of health care. He supports covering pre-existing conditions, allowing Americans to purchase health insurance across state lines, allowing small businesses to pool together and purchase health insurance at lower costs, giving states the tools to create their own innovative reforms that lowers costs and improves access to quality health care, and enacting meaningful tort reform that ends junk lawsuits that contribute to higher health care costs.

NOTE: Luetkemeyer recorded the following video on the health care debate. The video is available on his YouTube site at http://www.youtube.com/user/BLuetkemeyer#p/a/u/1/PDHD43dOo04.     

###