Next week, the House will vote to repeal and replace Obamacare with reforms that will keep control of health care decisions in the hands of patients and their doctors. As a physician, I've seen firsthand the problems insurance companies have created for patients. I've seen firsthand how government programs have made beneficiaries worse consumers of health care. I've seen how the cost of health care has exploded and made insurance unaffordable. I want to fix these problems. But Obamacare will not fix these problems - it is bad medicine for our nation.
Creating jobs and health care reform are at the forefront of my mind, and I am committed to helping this Congress implement true health care reform. By passing this legislation immediately, we will be sending the message that this Congress is not in favor of inserting Washington bureaucrats into a patient's relationship with his doctor; that we are not in favor of increasing the cost of health insurance; that we are not in favor of weakening Medicare to create a new entitlement; and that, at a time of record unemployment, we are not in favor of legislation that will eliminate jobs.
In medicine, there's no such thing as a Republican disease or a Democratic disease - there's just disease. Likewise, good ideas on health care reform shouldn't be defined by a party but by meeting a series of principles for reform. Through experience, listening to people from all sides of the political spectrum and from all walks of life, I have developed a few principles that I believe health care reform must encompass in the new legislation:
c Above all, do no harm.
A doctor's Hippocratic Oath should be applied to any reform considered. While many have focused on what's wrong with the current system, there's still a lot that is right. Eighty-five percent of Americans today have health insurance, and for the vast majority of them, the system works. They go in and see their doctor, who, in turn, diagnoses them and sends them home with a prescription or remedy that addresses the problem. When Washington tries to "fix" our health care system for one person, I want to make sure the result isn't a downgrade of care for three others.
c Doctors and patients should make medical decisions.
I prefer a system with private health insurers, who ultimately do a better job of putting decision-making authority in doctors' and patients' hands. The problem with publicly operated health insurance (the new way of saying "government-run health care") is that care must be rationed to meet the budget. Consider that here in America, the five-year survival rate for breast cancer is 98 percent, largely because of education, early diagnosis and sophisticated medical treatment. But in England, which has a national health system, mammograms are no longer covered because too many false positives resulted in more costly biopsies being performed. While it's less costly to wait for a lump to develop, no American in his right mind would think this is a reasonable approach to providing care. But these are the choices that have to be made in a public health plan funded with taxpayer dollars.
c Every American should have access to health insurance.
We should be able to agree that all Americans should have access to a basic benefits package that makes sure he or she is covered when going to the doctor's office or hospital. This isn't Rolls-Royce coverage that includes cosmetic surgery, hair transplants or fertility treatments, but basic benefits.
c Health care costs shouldn't bankrupt you.
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