As your Congresswoman, I will work to expand access to affordable health care and give families the freedom to choose the health care that fits their needs – without tax hikes.

Fix What Is Broken! It took Edison countless tries to perfect the light bulb, we still have plenty of tries left to perfect Medicare and Medicaid. With only forty-four years under our belt, there is room for tweaking.

I support privatizing Medicare, allotting money to the states and allowing the states to be directly responsible for Medicare payments instead of funneling the bill through the middle-man in Washington. Again, regulations are in place but they are not being enforced. We need to follow the guidelines, tweak the areas that need improvement, maintain a “watchdog” mentality on billing and give the states the capability to process claims, reimburse medical facilities and providers, and allow all other rights for processing that bill. I support incentives for fiscally responsible states.

I am concerned with the fact the government is spending $12 million in an advertising campaign to attempt to convince us of the virtues of approving the HR3200 Bill. Why do we need to be sold on anything that is good for us? Why does this Bill require an expensive advertising campaign -- at a low point in the economy? At this time, our focus needs to be on uninsured people and how can we help them, not the people who have insurance and are satisfied with the plans they have.

I strongly support Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). A Health Savings Account is a tax free separate private account for health insurance and is coupled with a low-cost, high deductible plan that gives ownership to the patient. What remains at the end of the year should be rolled over to the forthcoming year. HSAs give you ownership, choice, and responsibility over your own health care providing you the opportunity to live healthier. HSAs bring better health care, better doctor-patient relationships, lower cost through more competitive pricing, and more choices.

We could resolve the low rate of insurance coverage and the high cost of health care fairly easily by allowing interstate commerce. The problem with our health-care is mandates that artificially inflate health-care costs. Under these mandates, certain items have to be in your policy whether you need them or not. By allowing people the freedom to “shop” for insurance, cost could quickly be reduced.