Issue Position: Health Care

Issue Position

Provide proper oversight on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), Pub. Law No. 111-148, commonly known as 'ObamaCare.'

This law mandates that all uninsured Americans purchase health insurance or face a financial penalty, creates complex regulations for health care providers and insurers, imposes unfunded mandates on states and small businesses, dramatically expands Medicaid coverage and cuts Medicare funding, all while permitting the Obama Administration to issue waivers for those groups it chooses to exempt, raise taxes on successful individuals and some health services, and raise fees on insurance companies.

The ACA fails to accomplish real reform and instead harms health care, job creation and the federal deficit at a time when our country can ill-afford such government inflicted damage.

The ACA will cause premiums to skyrocket, forcing millions of Americans off of their current coverage and putting unelected Washington bureaucrats between patients and their doctors. With respect to the uninsured, ObamaCare drives up the cost of health care and takes us further away from real solutions to improve health care access.

As if these consequences were not bad enough, you hear every day in Nevada and across the country of small business owners who cannot hire and expand because of the increased regulatory costs of the ACA.The ACA equation is simple: higher costs, more debt, fewer doctors, reduced access, fewer jobs, and increased dependency on failed federal programs. This is not the answer to our health care crisis. It is making things worse, which is why I voted to repeal the ACA and will continue to work for patient-centered solutions to lower costs and improve quality health care access for all Nevadans.

The Supreme Court has made it clear that the ACA is constitutional and the President will begin to implement policy decision to move this law forward. That is why I will support measures that will limit the impact to reduce the costs assigned to taxpayers and small businesses. I believe any policy moving forward should prohibit funding for abortion and abortion coverage under the ACA, while protecting conscience rights for health care providers. Additionally, Congress must pass legislation that eliminates slush funds for bureaucrats and protects the doctor patient relationship. Finally, Congress must support legislation that eliminates the ACA's excise tax on medical devices. Meanwhile, I continue to look at other co-sponsorship opportunities that would reduce the effects of this destructive law.

I also voted to extend basic fairness to all Americans by delaying implementation of the ACA individual mandate, which will require Americans to buy health insurance or face fines. The Obama Administration recently decided to delay the employer mandate by one year, which will require larger businesses to provide healthcare coverage or face fines. By all accounts, the ACA is not ready for prime time. I do not believe that it will ever be. However, delaying implementation is clearly common ground and should be enacted for businesses and individuals alike.

For this reason I voted in favor of H.R. 2667, the Authority for Mandate Delay Act, and H.R. 2668, the Fairness for American Families Act, both of which passed the House with bipartisan support, would accomplish two goals respectively: 1) Codify the President's delay of the employer mandate for one year, because he does not have the authority to do so unilaterally,2) Extend the one-year delay to the individual mandate.

Cosponsored legislation:

H.R. 6079, the Repeal of ObamaCare Act, which passed the House.

H.R. 582, the Healthcare Tax Relief and Mandate Repeal Act

H.R. 763, to repeal the annual fee on health insurance providers enacted by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

H.R. 2022, to prevent the targeting for political reasons or on the basis of political views as related to the enforcement of ObamaCare

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