Paul Broun

Mr. BROUN of Georgia

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Absolutely, because what it is going to do is this health care commissioner, I won't use the word ``czar,'' but that's what he is going to be, this health care commissioner is going to set every single private plan in this country, and the employer is not going to have a choice about it, and neither is the employee. If the employee doesn't want that plan that's set by this health care commissioner, established by the President, appointed by the President, then that individual is going to be fined through the Tax Code, and they're going to be fined by having to pay higher taxes for just not accepting the mandated coverage that this health care commissioner and this administration is going to put upon them.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Let me point out a specific here. Particularly with this administration, which is the most pro-abortion administration that we have ever seen, obviously what this plan is going to include, if Barack Obama has anything to say about it, is taxpayer-funded abortions. And people are not going to have a choice. They're going to have to be buying a plan and help support a plan, even if they disagree with abortions, that will pay for abortions. And it may be, there's a very high potential that that plan to cover everybody within an employee of a particular business, it may be that a single male is going to have to pay for OB coverage. It may be that a person who is past, a couple, for instance, who works for a particular company who is past the childbearing ages are going to have to pay for OB coverages, because this health care commissioner is going to mandate to every single business, every single private insurance company, whether it's individually purchased or whether it's purchased through the company that they work for, this health care commissioner is going to mandate coverage to every single human being in America.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. The American people need to understand that, that this plan, though it is silent on abortions, amendments to the plan have been presented to make sure that the plan does not make taxpayers pay for abortions.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. It has been offered in the committees. And those amendments have been defeated. In other words, the Democrats, and it has been pretty much party line--

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. That's exactly right.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. That's correct.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. There have been two other medical groups that have endorsed ObamaCare. One is the American College of Surgeons, and the other one is the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Well, ACOG, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, have been promoting abortion. So go back to your pro-life group; they wouldn't sign on to a plan if we pay, with taxpayers' funds, abortions. That's one thing. Secondly, back to the AMA; I don't think they represent but about 20 percent of doctors here in this country.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. That's right. In fact, AMA represents very few doctors in this country. I'm a member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Jane Orient is the executive director. It has very ardently opposed a government takeover of health care for years and years, and looking to the marketplace, has presented ideas about how to lower the cost of health care for everybody in this country to make it more affordable. But the liberals in Congress won't hear of that type of philosophy. So the AMA's endorsing this plan, actually I think they have been very shortsighted, because as Dr. Fleming said, they cut a backroom deal by just a little handful of the leadership in they AMA. They didn't consult any doctor here in Congress that I can find. Neither did any of the other two groups. They didn't consult any of us who serve here in Congress, and cut these backroom deals on the SGR, sustained growth rate, or what we have called ``doc fix'' here. But they're being very shortsighted because, the thing is, the taxes for all those doctors is going to go up above what they have been promised to be given in not cutting their fees. And so net income for the doctors is actually going to go down, and the doctors ought to understand that the AMA has sold them out.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Thank you, Mr. Akin. I just want to talk a little bit more about something that Dr. Fleming brought up is this comparative effectiveness research that was funded through the stimulus bill; got a ton of money to set up this commission or study group to look at comparative effectiveness research. Age is one of the parameters. What happens in Canada today, if you need coronary bypass surgery, you just go on a waiting list and you just stay there till you die, if you're past a certain age. If you're diabetic and develop renal failure and need dialysis, I think the age is 55. I'm not certain of the age up there. In Great Britain it's the same way. They say, well, that's fine. We'll put you on the list for a renal transplant, or even for dialysis. You just never get off the list. You just die there. And very quickly.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. It's going to lose millions of jobs. And those that are working are actually going to have a lower take-home pay because of the increased cost and the mandates on the individual as well as on their business. So incomes literally are going to go down if you're employed and you keep your job, but there are millions of Americans that are going to literally lose their jobs because of ObamaCare.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. They're going to lose their jobs because of the increased taxes and burden.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. It's almost 14 percent in many of my counties in Georgia.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Tell me it's not so.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. No.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. No.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. I would like to tell you a story that I recently heard about a patient that actually helped my friend from Michigan's economy. Mr. Hoekstra, you might be very interested in this because it actually provided some funds into your State, from what I understand. A patient in Canada had severe knee pain, such severe knee pain that he required narcotics. He went to see his family doctor, the gatekeeper to the health system up there. The doctor told him that he was just going to treat him with some physical therapy and give him narcotics. This went on for over a year before he could get in to see an orthopedic surgeon. It took him over a year to be on the list to see the orthopedic surgeon for evaluation of this severe knee pain. When he finally got to see the orthopedic surgeon after a year--of course here in this country if a family doctor, like me, wants to get a patient to the orthopedic surgeon, we can do it within a matter of days and certainly weeks, if the orthopedist is extremely busy. But it took him over a year to see an orthopedic surgeon that was mandated by the government. He had to see this particular one. It took him over a year to see him. The orthopedic surgeon finally did some x-rays on him and told the patient, Yes, you've got such and such a condition in your knee; and you need an operation. This patient said, Fine. Let's go to the hospital. I want to get rid of this pain. I want to get off the narcotics. The orthopedic surgeon said, No, no, no, no. You can't do that. We'll have to put you on a waiting list to get in the hospital for your surgery. The patient said, Well, how long is that going to take? We don't know, is what he was told. So the patient left Canada and came to the United States--I think to Michigan--to get his much-needed simple knee surgery that was denied immediate care, may even have made him a narcotic addict because he was put on those narcotics that he had to take for the severe pain. So he had to deal with that too because the government delayed his evaluation and his treatment. That's exactly what's going to happen to people here in America under this plan that's being presented by the Democrats.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Would the gentleman yield?

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Let me tell you where I was going to begin with. Say a Medicare patient comes in with some chest pain, and I decided that they needed an x-ray of the chest or an MRI of the chest, I have to call a Federal bureaucrat to get permission for that patient to have those studies done right now today. In fact, even with a lot of the HMOs that are privately administered, if I prescribe an anti- hypertensive, something to control blood pressure, I have to call a pharmacy benefits manager to get permission and approval to prescribe a medication, which I am totally against that. In my office we're writing a health care reform plan that will put patients in the position where they make the decision, not a pharmacy benefits manager, not a Federal bureaucrat. It's one of the plans that's going to be offered as a bill. But right now today, that Federal bureaucrat tells me, as a doctor, what kind of x-rays that I can do on my patients if they're on government plans, Medicare and Medicaid. It's already a broken system. Care is already being rationed in the government-supplied insurance programs today, in Medicare and Medicaid. It's going to get a lot worse under ObamaCare, a lot worse. We'll have more rationing of care, more denial of care. There will be longer waiting periods.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. It was over 100 million nationally.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Congress.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. You bet.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Well, Mr. King, I am glad you brought this up because the American people have been promised by this President over and over again. He's saying, if you like your insurance, you can keep it. But nothing could be further from the truth. It's not factual. It's just totally falsehood. If you like the policy that you have today, you will not be able to keep it under ObamaCare. The other thing that you're talking about there--let me just tell you what happens to me as a physician with Medicare payments.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. You're exactly right. We have been, as Republicans, by our Democratic colleagues, have been described as the Party of No, N-O. But the reality is we are the Party of Know, K-N-O-W, because we know how to lower the cost of health care. We know how to get those uninsured people so that they can be insured. In fact, even the ObamaCare plan, the director of the CBO said that even in 10 years there's still going to be millions and millions of people uninsured even under the Obama plan. So we are the Party of Know to know how to solve these problems, to put people back to work, to give them lower cost for insurance. We have multiple plans on our side. I hope the American people understand that.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Well, I'd like to tell you, my dear friend from Michigan, Mr. Hoekstra, that everybody in this country has access to health care. Today. Everybody, whether they're employed or unemployed. The reason they have access to health care is because anybody can walk into any emergency room anywhere in this country and they can get evaluation and treatment for any problem that they have. I used to work full time as a director of emergency services at Georgia Baptist Hospital in Sylvester, Georgia, and anybody that walked in the door for any problem was evaluated and treated, whether they had health insurance or not. And that's true all over the country. So everybody in this country, whether they have health insurance, whether they're employed, whether they're unemployed, whether they're legal immigrants, whether they're illegal aliens, whether they're American citizens, whether they're taxpayers or nontaxpayers, everybody in this country today has access the health care system. The thing that they don't have, the 45 million or 47 million, is they don't have a health insurance card or policy in their pocket to pay for it.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Will the gentleman yield?