Virginia has been a laboratory of democracy since the beginnings of our country, and as we debate the future of health care in our great nation, the Old Dominion should again step forward to lead in the discussion. To do this, Virginia must continue to work toward meaningful health care reform but stand up and object to the significantly flawed national health care mandates that threaten the economic stability of our country.
Three years ago, President Obama told Senate Democrats, “As we move forward on health reform, it is not sufficient for us to simply add more people to Medicare or Medicaid to increase the rolls, to increase coverage in the absence of cost controls and reform. Another way of putting it is we can’t simply put more people into a broken system that doesn’t work.” Mr. Obama has ignored his own advice, and if implemented as intended, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) will put 16 million to 20 million people into a broken Medicaid system. In Virginia, our Medicaid program already is nearly 20 percent of the commonwealth’s budget, and this number continues to grow. This is without the proposed Medicaid expansion under PPACA. I was elected to be a careful and responsible steward of our limited tax dollars, and it would be irresponsible to infuse billions of tax dollars into a program that we all agree is broken.
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