Morgan Griffith defends his vote to repeal HCR

Morgan Griffith’s brief defense statement is available on his Congressional web page — link to the right under “Quick Links”:

Your personal health care decisions should be made by you and your doctor, and no one else. Our health care system needs reform, but ObamaCare is not the answer. ObamaCare will ultimately destroy valuable jobs. We can do better than a government takeover.

This defense is no defense, for these reasons:

• If we return to the old system, the insurance company will again stand between you and your doctor, tell you and your doctor what options are available for you, and tell you that you are not covered if you cost them too much. They will refuse to cover you for preexisting conditions, and neither you nor your doctor will have any voice in that decision. The AMA and the national nurses’ union have spoken out against the repeal that Morgan Griffith supports. Griffith’s vote, if the measure prevails, will put you and your doctor back under the thumb of your insurance company, which cares only for the bottom line — not for your health or for your doctor’s opinion or integrity.
• If “ObamaCare is not the answer,” it is at least a better response than we have ever had in the past. It gets people to medical services and compels insurers to do something with your money other than pay bonuses to their executives. It insures young people through the college years on their parents’ insurance plans. It protects people with preexisting conditions. It removes lifetime caps. It does away with co-pay for preventive care. I agree HCR is not perfect, but it is a strong initial plan that will be improved as it goes along. Griffith’s repeal vote, if the measure prevails, will trash a strong plan with protections that people need in favor of a perfect plan that does not exist and likely never will.
• HCR will not destroy jobs. (from Forbes)
• HCR is not a government takeover. It does not even include a public option, and the private insurers are still as wealthy as ever. The difference is that under HCR when you buy insurance from them you actually have insurance — they can’t drop you when you get sick.

Call Representative Griffith, or use the link at the right to contact him and let him know that he is wrong about the repeal of HCR.