Fleming Urges Support Of Declaration Of Health Care Independence

Statement

Representative John Fleming, M.D. released the following statement urging Americans to support the Declaration of Health Care Independence. With the support of almost 100 Members of Congress, the Declaration of Health Care Independence is a commitment to protect the rights of the American people to make their own health decisions, reduce bureaucratic red-tape, decrease intergenerational debt and includes ten common-sense principles that must be included in future health care reforms.

"While the President is making supposedly "bipartisan' overtures, inviting Republicans to a health care summit, the Speaker apparently has plans to ram the same partisan bill the American people have already rejected through Congress, using what one of her own advisors has called a "trick.' Americans are tired of these types of back room deals and closed-door politics.

"In an effort to put health care reform back on the right track, Republicans have come together to draft a set of common sense principles that we are asking the White House and all Members of Congress to embrace. Almost 100 Members of Congress have declared independence from back-room deals, crushing debt, and a government take-over of health care.

"I proudly helped author this Declaration of Health Care Independence and invite all of my constituents to add their support."

The text of the Declaration of Health Care Independence is as follows:

We, therefore, the People and Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, do solemnly Publish and Declare that health care reform, as a matter of principle must

1) Protect as inviolate the vital doctor-patient relationship;

2) Reject any addition to the crushing national debt heaped upon all Americans;

3) Improve, rather than diminish, the quality of care that Americans enjoy;

4) Be negotiated publically, transparently, with genuine accountability and oversight, and be free from political favoritism;

5) Treat private citizens at least as well as political officials;

6) Protect taxpayers from funding of abortion and abortion coverage;

7) Reject all new mandates on patients, employers, individuals, or states;

8) Prohibit expansion of taxpayer funded health care to those unlawfully present in the United States;

9) Guarantee Equal Protection under the law and the Constitution;

10) Empower, rather than limit, an open and accessible marketplace of health care choice and opportunity.

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