House Leader John Boehner (OH): The American people have spoken. Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats have ignored them.  Through the month of August, the American people let Members of Congress from both parties know that they didn’t want a government takeover of health care.  That hasn’t changed.

But instead of listening to the American people, Democrats hid behind closed doors and came back with a bill designed to appease the liberal special interests.  Three things about Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill are already clear: it will raise the cost of Americans’ health insurance premiums; it will kill jobs with tax hikes and new mandates; and it will cut seniors’ Medicare benefits.  The fact that it weighs in at nearly 2,000 pages – more than 620 pages longer than the government takeover of health care Hillary Clinton proposed in 1993 – is as good an indication as any of just how costly and unsustainable Speaker Pelosi’s proposal is.
 
There is a better way.  Republicans have offered solutions to lower health care costs and expand access at a cost our nation can afford.  You can read about them at healthcare.gop.gov.  Democrats need to listen to the American people, and work with us on the real reforms families want and need.

Rep. Phil Roe (TN): While I will be reading the 1900+ page bill over the next week to find out what other problems are buried in the text, one thing is clear –  this bill will lead to decreased access to care, decreased quality of care, and increased cost to beneficiaries.  It needs to be rewritten before we do irreparable harm to our health care system.

Rep. Judy Biggert (IL): Instead of producing a bipartisan proposal that delivers the solutions Americans want, Democrat leaders are simply pushing ahead with a go-it-alone approach that raises costs, slashes Medicare, and will drive families into government-run care.  Americans need common-sense health care solutions, and those don’t require massive new costs on individuals and small businesses at the worst possible time for our economy. 

Rep. Gregg Harper (MS): After weeks of negotiating behind closed doors, Democratic leaders emerged today with a plan that will increase premiums for Mississippi families by $3,869 per year according to an analysis by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. Negotiators claim they were able to ‘lower the price tag’ of the legislation by expanding Medicaid. The truth is the federal government has irresponsibly pitched the burden to individuals through increased premiums for private policy holders and states in the form of unfunded mandates that will cost Mississippi an additional $200 million a year. This bill is bad for my state and our country.”

Rep. Patrick McHenry (NC): Nowhere in this 1,990-page bill are the common sense reforms that everyone agrees on.  Insurance companies are not forced to compete with one another across state lines.  Small businesses are not permitted to join together to purchase affordable coverage for their employees.  Lawsuit abuse will continue to thrive so the real victims are denied justice and the cost of healthcare can continue to escalate.

Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO): Even though the American people spoke loud and clear this past summer against a government takeover of health care, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow liberals in the House have decided to ignore them and instead have chosen to proceed with a bill that puts government bureaucrats in control of health care.

Rep. Steve King (IA): The Pelosi Democrats are willing to spend nearly a trillion dollars to reduce the percentage of uninsured from less than four percent of Americans without affordable options down to perhaps two percent, and in the process put in place the framework for socialized medicine. This is a bad deal for every American, those present and grandchildren yet to be born. The American people need to rise up, shut down the phone lines in Congress and kill this bill.”

Rep. Jeff Flake (AZ): The House Democrats’ bill takes us in the wrong direction...This bill does nothing to control healthcare costs.  It simply shifts billions of dollars of liability to taxpayers.  It just creates a whole new set of problems.