Op-Ed: A New Opportunity for Health Care
A New Opportunity for Health Care
By – Michael Allegretti
A cornerstone of my campaign to represent New York’s 13th Congressional District (Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn) in the House of Representatives is my pledge to fight for common-sense reform of health care insurance. The American people rightfully rejected the health care plan orchestrated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as overreaching and the product of corrupt bargains. That plan’s failure presents a new opportunity for Congress to enact meaningful reforms that will address the needs of the American people rather than expand government and cater to special interests.
America can achieve the goal of extending coverage to the uninsured without imposing an overarching government restructuring on everyone’s health insurance. Americans who are satisfied with the insurance that they receive through their employers should not be subjected to onerous new regulations and taxes that will only limit their health care choices. Nor should our seniors be subjected to cuts in Medicare to finance the inefficient workings of an extensive new government bureaucracy. We need to focus on real reforms that will increase competition among insurers and lower insurance costs, such as allowing insurers to sell policies across state lines and reforming tort law so that doctors’ malpractice insurance will no longer be such a large component of our health care costs. Most of all, health care reform must be negotiated in public view, with no backroom deals exempting special interests (or entire states) from the responsibilities that all Americans must share.
As the Representative of New York’s 13th Congressional District, I will fight to enact meaningful health care reforms that will lower costs and increase insurance options while minimizing government intrusion into Americans’ health care decisions.
Michael Allegretti is a candidate for the US Congress.
