By Rep. Matt Baker (Bradford/Tioga)

Dominating the news in recent months is President Barack Obama’s proposed government-run health care system. Apparently, as more information is made public about the plan, more and more citizens are becoming outraged. In fact, in Massachusetts (an overwhelmingly Democratic state) the citizenry elected a Republican senator for the first time in more than three decades because he campaigned on strong opposition to the Obama health care plan.

Clearly, more and more people across the country are expressing their concerns about a government-run health care plan, and what that would mean in terms of cost, access and quality of the health care they could receive. Massachusetts adopted a health care plan, which the Obama administration included as some of its main principles, and after severely straining the state’s budget and having insurance premiums increase by 8 percent to 12 percent in a single year, the people chose a new senator who would speak loud and clear in Washington against a similar nationwide health care plan.

In an effort to protect the rights of the citizens of Pennsylvania, I have introduced House Bill 2053, the “Health Care Freedom Act,” which would protect your right to access private medical care, and prohibit the government from penalizing you for not purchasing bureaucrat-approved insurance. My legislation would work to preserve the patient-doctor relationship as well as individual rights to not take part in a government-run health care plan that reduces funding for both Medicare and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. However, my legislation would still allow individuals to participate in a universal health care plan if they so chose.

House Bill 2053 provides choice, not mandates. By requiring individuals and employers to take part in a universal, single-payer health care system, we are harming patients and threatening our fragile economy. The Obama administration wants to establish a mandatory, government-run health care system that will take medical decisions out of the hands of doctors and patients and put them in the hands of bureaucrats. We have already witnessed the detrimental effects this type of system has in countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom, so why would we think it would work here?

Not only would a federally mandated health care system erode the quality of health care in America, it would also place an enormous financial cost on a citizenry still coping with a recession. In fact, it is estimated that the federal health care plan currently being discussed in Washington would cost the Commonwealth more than $1 billion. With Pennsylvania already facing a multi-million dollar budget deficit this year, the ramifications of such an additional financial burden would be staggering.

On Jan. 27 at the Capitol in Harrisburg, I hosted a rally where we heard from other state legislators, a Pennsylvania congressman, a doctor and a woman who experienced a government-run health care system while living in the United Kingdom.  All of these people have expressed a strong desire to stay out of a universal federal health care plan, and to prevent the state of Pennsylvania from enacting similar mandates.

With the introduction of House Bill 2053, Pennsylvania joins more than 30 other states that have either introduced or announced legislation to block state or federal health care mandates.

The Health Care Freedom Act is just one of several health care measures developed by the House Republican Policy Committee’s Health Care Task Force, of which I am a member. In addition to my bill, Rep. Curt Schroder (R-Chester) has also introduced House Bill 2179, a joint resolution which proposes an amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution protecting a citizen’s right to choose his or her own health care and to purchase health care insurance from the company of his or her choice.

In Pennsylvania, we are fortunate that 92 percent of the population has access to health insurance, through employer-paid benefits or government services such as Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP or adultBasic. However, we are continuing to look for ways to reach the other 8 percent and provide them with affordable, quality health care as well.

For information on alternative health care reforms and solutions developed by the House Republican Policy Committee’s Health Care Task Force, go to healthcareforpafamilies.com. For more information on the Health Care Freedom Act, go to www.RepBaker.com.

Rep. Matt Baker represents the 68th Legislative District in Bradford and Tioga counties. He is the Republican chairman of the House Health and Human Services Committee and is a member of the House Republican Policy Committee’s Health Care Task Force.

Rep. Matthew Baker
68th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
(570) 724-1390
(717) 772-5371

www.RepBaker.com

Contact:  Tricia Lehman

House Republican Public Relations

(717) 772-9840

www.pahousegop.com