Celebrating Religious Liberty and Constricting Individual Freedoms

Floor Speech

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, as I come to the floor this morning, I want to express appreciation for our 64th annual National Prayer Breakfast that takes place tomorrow. I think this is such a wonderful gathering that we have every year, where our Nation focuses on praying for our Nation. I want to welcome my guests, Dr. and Mrs. Franklin Page, who will join us this week to recognize this time and to set aside time to celebrate our religious liberty and the individual freedom that becomes the focus of this week.

There is also another focus that comes into mind as we talk about this religious liberty. I want to take a moment and welcome and recognize the arrival of my new nephew, Grayson Lee Hunter. He is joining brothers Worth and Preston, his cousin Georgia Kate, and his cousins Jack and Chase, who are my grandsons. We know that being able to grow up in freedom is such a wonderful gift, and we are excited about that and excited about what individual freedom means to each of us.

I want to turn our attention now to something that constricts that freedom, and that is what we see through the President's healthcare law. Again, yesterday we came to the floor to push to repeal that law. This is something that we will continue. There is a reason for this.

Let me give you some examples. Last week I was out in my district. I visited with constituents who are employers. I want to cite three examples. One, an employer of 76 people, another an employer of 400 people, and another a franchise owner, 3,000 people that are in this group.

Let me tell you what I heard from each and every one of these individuals. Their employees, many of whom are my constituents, want to see a return to patient-centered, affordable health care. They do not want more Big Government and more unfunded mandates that they are being forced to deal with. It changes the kind of health care that they can get.

Now, when it comes to health insurance, what we have found is the escalation of cost to the individual because of what is happening with the mandate. The insurance cost has gone up, the out-of-pocket deductibles, all of this is going up. What we also see is a cramping of access because of narrowed networks.

Another thing that is happening is what is taking place through the oversight boards, the preventive service task forces. These could also be called some of those oxymoronic Federal agencies because instead of opening up the healthcare process, what we see is they are reducing what you have access to, and it is also a slowdown in payment reimbursements for so many of our Medicare recipients. That is what is happening in health care, and we are hearing about it from our employers.

Now, there are options that are out there. Let me cite just a couple for my colleagues. H.R. 2300, Empowering Patients First Act, that is the bill from Dr. Price, and also, special attention to, the Republican Study Committee plan, the American Health Care Reform Act. It is H.R. 2653. Leading this charge has been my Tennessee colleague Dr. Phil Roe, who has worked with each of us as we have pulled provisions into this bill to make certain that we return to the principles of affordability, accessibility, and accountability in patient-centered health care. We think it is time for these moves to take place.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to return everyone's attention to the need to address the issue of replacing the ObamaCare legislation so that we reduce the cost and increase the access of health care for all Americans.

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