Americans from all walks of life have a story to tell about the difficulties a tough medical diagnoses has brought on, or their struggles with paying medical bills.  I do not deny that reforms are needed, but Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats have simply put forth the wrong kind of reform. 

You don’t make insurance more affordable by making it more expensive.  Families will not benefit from higher taxes.  Struggling small businesses will find it more difficult to afford employer-sponsored health insurance for their employees with new federal mandates and costly penalties for non-compliance.  Seniors who have paid into the Medicare system for decades will see their benefits decrease.  This is not health care reform.

Despite the monstrous size of the bill, the Democrats’ health care plan continues to leave out huge aspects of health care reform.  Medicare doctors are facing a 20 percent cut in payments, yet nothing in today’s announced plan addresses this issue.  Medical liability reform, which has greatly improved access to health care and lowered costs in Texas, is completely missing.

Furthermore, the process leading up to today in the House of Representatives has been the most secretive and opaque since I was elected to Congress in 2002.  House Republicans, including the thirteen of us who are medical professionals, were denied the opportunity to participate in the legislative process from the beginning, despite our continued efforts to provide real ideas for meaningful reform based on our years of experience.  Democrats have completely ignored the millions of Americans who voiced their strong opposition to a government takeover of America’s health care system by pushing ahead with a ‘public option’ and a drastic expansion of Medicaid.