Rep. Issa: It’s Not Too Late To Change Approach on Health Care Takeover Bills

WASHINGTON. D.C. – Rep. Darrell Issa has sent a letter to House Democratic health care bill negotiators urging them to scrap the existing health care takeover proposal and substitute H.R. 3438, the “Access to Insurance for All Americans Act,” a proposal which would offer all Americans the opportunity to obtain the same health care choices that members of Congress have.

The letter from Rep. Issa advocating an alternative idea he introduced explains:

“The public overwhelmingly supports this proposal.  A September 2009 Rasmussen public opinion poll found 78% of U.S. voters believe all Americans should ‘be allowed to purchase the same health insurance plan that members of Congress use.’”

The letter notes that while the public supports the idea of giving Americans access to the same private health care plans available to Members of Congress, the majority of Americans oppose the existing reform bills passed by the House and Senate.

Prominent Democrats have publically supported the approach taken by Rep. Issa’s bill to give Americans access to the same benefits enjoyed by Members of Congress.

The late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), addressing his party’s 1980 convention, stated, “I say it again, as I have said before, if health insurance is good enough for the president, the vice president, and the Congress of the United States, then it is good enough for all of you and for every family in America.”

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, then running for the Democratic nomination, told Chris Wallace in a 2007 “FOX News Sunday” interview that if she was elected every American would “have the same choices that are available to members of Congress, because we will open up the plan that members of Congress have.”

During the 2008 presidential debate at Hofstra University, President Barack Obama promised to provide every American with “the option of buying into the same kind of federal pool that both Sen. [John] McCain (R-Ariz.) and I enjoy as federal employees.”

Click here to read Rep. Issa’s letter.
Click here to read more about Rep. Issa’s alternative proposal.