Moran's statement opposing passage of health-care bill

Congressman Jerry Moran commented on H.R. 3962, Speaker Pelosi’s health-care reform bill. This bill passed the House of Representatives by a 220-215 vote at 11:15 p.m. Saturday. Moran opposed this bill.

“After studying Speaker Pelosi’s over 2,000 page health care reform bill, listening to the concerns of Kansans, and visiting Kansas hospitals to speak with doctors, nurses, patients, and administrators, I concluded that this bill will be harmful to Kansas, and I voted against the measure this evening,” Moran said. “As Chairman of the House Rural Health Care Coalition, I know how important health care is to the survival of Kansas towns. Our state has unique health-care needs, different from much of the country, and we have an aging population that is spread widely across a large area. I have written about my ideas for reform and have shared them with folks back home and anyone in Washington who will listen. But, the Speaker’s bill contains billions in cuts to Medicare, fails to reduce care costs, grows the government, and explodes the deficit. Unfortunately, it will also diminish health care for Kansans.

“I am especially troubled by how $500 billion in Medicare cuts and proposed reimbursement rates contained in the bill will affect Kansas with our high per-capita population of seniors. Only in Washington does cutting billions from a near-bankrupt Medicare program seem like a good idea. These cuts will reduce benefits and raise premiums for Kansas seniors and make it harder for us to find a doctor or nurse when we need one.

“We strengthen our health-care system by reducing costs. The Speaker’s bill will do nothing to reduce costs and, in fact, Medicare and Medicaid’s own actuaries have warned that the plan will dramatically increase federal health-care spending.

“Instead of working to repair our current system, which the majority of Americans favor, the Pelosi bill would turn much of our system on its head by creating a new government-sponsored health-care program financed by deficit spending and taxes. This bill levies taxes on businesses, cuts Medicare benefits to seniors, eliminates jobs with an employer mandate, and enables bureaucrats to define what form of health coverage is acceptable for Americans. The bill would create 118 new boards, bureaucracies, commissions, and programs to carry out its so-called ‘reforms.’ But, it only would cut one program —Medicare.

“Kansans share a desire to fight to make a better life for our children, a life better than the one we had for ourselves. This is what we do in America — we leave the next generations better off. However, this bill coupled with all the other bad ideas of this Congress – the stimulus packages, bailouts, Cash For Clunkers, and Cap and Trade — will leave our children with more debt, less freedom, diminished personal responsibility, and fewer economic opportunities. This is not something I can support.”

Moran is Chairman of the House Rural Health Care Coalition and co-founder of the Congressional Community Pharmacy Coalition.