As 6th District Rep. Bob Goodlatte sees it, health insurance reform is necessary but not the way it is proposed in the legislation before Congress.
The Republican House member for the Shenandoah Valley said the American people want a more reasonable reform.
He suggests incremental changes that would include allowing policies to be sold across state lines. He also believes allowing pools of coverage would spread the risks of major costs across hundreds to thousands of employers. And he supports medical liability reform that would lessen defensive medicine.
“It’s common knowledge that tests and procedures are done now just in case there is a lawsuit,’’ said Goodlatte, who visited the Waynesboro Kiwanis Club Tuesday.
Goodlatte said the current Senate health care bill would cost $850 billion, and a proposal by President Barack Obama $100 billion more than the Senate bill. At the same time, Obama’s proposal would cut hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare at a time baby boomers are coming on the Medicare rolls, Goodlatte said.
And there is the increase in the size of government that the legislation includes. Almost 150 new government agencies and programs would be created by the health care legislation, including the position of national health insurance commissioner.
“I believe competition is the best way to go, not government regulation,’’ said Goodlatte, who anticipates a vote on the legislation by the end of the month before Congress starts an Easter recess.
Goodlatte said the thousands of e-mails and calls his office has received have overwhelmingly asked that Congress go back to the table and reexamine health care reform.
Meanwhile, Goodlatte said the country’s $1.6-trillion deficit estimated for next year’s federal budget represents four times the amount the country ever borrowed prior to last year.
“We are borrowing double and triple the rates we have’’ previously, said Goodlatte, who has for years proposed a balanced budget amendment that now has the support of 180 congressional co-sponsors.
The congressman said the federal spending cannot be sustained, and it is time for Congress to tighten its belt. “Other governments are tightening their belt. We need to as well,’’ he said.
Goodlatte said if Congress approves a balanced budget amendment, there will be layoffs of federal employees. But he said those layoffs would be phased in over a period of years, and the government would not neglect essential responsibilities such as national defense.
