Speaker Pelosi yesterday unveiled her 1,990 page health “reform” bill. I oppose this bill and any other bill that allows the government to take over your health care decisions. H.R. 3962 is very similar to H.R. 3200 (which was unveiled in July), which I also opposed. I simply do not believe in raising taxes on small businesses, forcing individuals to get government-run health insurance, or adding to our national debt. Furthermore, cutting $500 billion from Medicare to seniors is not want seniors deserve.

**Speaker Pelosi expects to pass this bill in one week**

H.R. 3962 in a nutshell

• Government-run insurance
• Massive cuts to Medicare will limit choices and benefits for seniors
• Job-killing employer mandate with up to 8% “pay or play” payroll tax on small businesses
• Choice-restricting individual mandate with up to 2.5% tax on adjusted gross income
• 5.4% surtax on individuals with over $500k in income (half of all these income filers are small businesses)
• 2.5% excise tax on medical devices and equipment which is passed on to consumers
• $2 billion tax on insurance policies
• Medicare Part B premiums increases by $25 billion
• Medicare Part D premiums increase by 20%
• Government bureaucrat “Health Benefits Advisory Committee”
• One size fits all comparative effectiveness research
• Budget-busting entitlement expansion places massive, unfunded mandate on states
• Restricts Health Savings Accounts (repeals tax break on medicine purchased with HSA)
• Restricts Medical Savings Accounts
• Restricts Flexible Spending Arrangements
• Restricts Health Reimbursement Arrangements

You can read the bill too
The Congressional Health Care Caucus has posted a link to text of H.R. 3962 on their website.

Improving health care without a government takeover: Bills I Support
The Republican Study Committee, a caucus of House conservatives which I am a member of, has introduced no less than 53 bills to improve health care, which you can access here. I’d like to share 6 bills which I support to improve health care for the American people:

• H.R. 2520 Patients’ Choice Act (authored by Rep. Paul Ryan)
• H.R. 3400 Empowering Patients First Act (authored by Rep. Tom Price)
• H.R. 1086 Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Healthcare (HEALTH) Act (authored by Rep. Phil Gingrey)
• H.R. 1468 Medical Justice Act (authored by Rep. Michael Burgess)
• H.R. 3508 Healthy Savings Act (authored by Rep. Erik Paulsen)
• H.R. 3610 Health Savings and Affordability Act (authored by Rep. Steve Austria)

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October 30, 2009