I had a conversation recently with a young mother facing an all too common challenge: how to provide adequate health care for her two young, vibrant sons as her employer cancelled her current health care plan. This young woman was visibly upset, that she was losing an opportunity for affordable health care and struggling to find a decent option that she could afford.
I have heard many personal stories and struggles of Virginians who have been informed that their current health plans are being cancelled, and simply cannot afford an alternative. “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it.” We heard this phrase over, and over again, but four years after Obamacare legislation originated in Washington, too many folks living in America’s First District are losing their current health insurance because of this law. I opposed Obamacare from the start – not because I oppose health reform, rather, the opposite – because Obamacare did not bring needed reforms: affordability, accessibility, portability. We’ve seen, as the rubber hits the road and Obamacare has launched, that this law has created more problems for folks, rather than bringing much-needed, long-overdue reform.
Washington should not create roadblocks or obstacles, but opportunity. The best ideas to fix Washington come not from inside Washington, but from folks such as my friends and neighbors in Montross and around America’s First District. As I travel around the First District, visiting and meeting with folks, I hear firsthand about the challenges facing individuals, their families or their small businesses. I believe our nation must address these challenges especially issues that affect folks on a daily basis – jobs, the economy and health care.
That’s why I supported legislation offered on the House floor this past week, the Keep Your Health Plan Act, permitting Americans to keep their health care plans into 2014 despite the problems with Obamacare. This bill is not a complete solution to all the issues with Obamacare, but it is a step forward in giving flexibility to families to make their own decisions about health care.
I am committed to working toward real health care reform solutions that:
· Ensure coverage for individuals with pre-existing conditions
· Allow youth up to the age of 26 to stay on their parents’ insurance plans
· Allow the sale of insurance across state lines
· Enact real medical liability reform
· Protect the doctor-patient relationship
· Limit government interventions in individual health care decisions
· Protect jobs, and
· Reduce the overall cost of delivering health care.
I have given my support to health care reform legislation that will achieve such goals, including H.R. 3121, the American Health Care Reform Act of 2013 and H.R. 2300, the Empowering Patients First Act of 2013. These pieces of legislation include key reforms and also fully repeal Obamacare.
As we continue efforts to improve the affordability and accessibility of health care, I will continue to support efforts to give flexibility to individuals and families searching for solutions for their health care coverage.
The main streets of Virginia’s First District are full of ideas to get our economy back on track, and your feedback is critically important to me as I serve you. I can be reached by telephone at (202) 225-4261, through my website (www.wittman.house.gov), on Facebook (www.facebook.com/reprobwittman), and via Twitter (www.twitter.com/robwittman).
