It's Time to Restart the Healthcare Reform Debate

Statement of former U.S. Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA)

Contact: Chris Barron
(202) 286-4533

(Washington, D.C.) - On the heels of Scott Brown's upset victory in the Massachusetts special election on Tuesday, former U.S. Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), President of the Republican Main Street Partnership, issued the following statement:

"The decisive victory by Scott Brown in Massachusetts on Tuesday makes it clear we need to restart the healthcare debate. Indeed, according to polling, almost 50% of voters in Massachusetts cited healthcare as the reason why they voted. These voters propelled Scott Brown, who ran promising to be the 41st vote against the current healthcare proposal, to victory.

"If Democratic leadership is serious about passing meaningful healthcare reform, they should work to forge a common-sense compromise by engaging centrists on both sides of the aisle.

"Main Street has laid out 10 principles for bipartisan healthcare reform. While this list is not exhaustive, we do believe it establishes a framework on which a common-sense compromise can be forged. It is time to put partisan politics aside; it is time to end the back room deals; and it is time to end the handouts to special interests. It's time to get down to doing the work the voters sent Congress here to do."

PROPOSED PRINCIPLES FOR REFORM:

- Preserve, protect and strengthen the private system of healthcare and the private system of health insurance. To do so, we must oppose any proposal that provides for a "government option."

- Shift our emphasis from the current "treatment paradigm" to one that focuses on the prevention of illness and disease.

- Work to lower healthcare costs across the system. We should make lowering the cost of healthcare a priority.

- Eliminate fraud and waste in both the public and private healthcare systems. Fraud in the Medicare and Medicaid systems alone costs taxpayers billions of dollars each year.

- Enact meaningful tort reform that protects patients but at the same time ends the abuse of frivolous lawsuits brought by unscrupulous trial lawyers. The current system fails both patients and providers.

- Harness 21st century technologies and innovation. Health information technology, for example, can save money and save lives.

- Encourage cutting edge research and the development of new life-saving and life-extending treatments by updating the research and development tax credit and making it permanent.

- Empower individuals to have more control over their healthcare decisions.

- Encourage competition across the healthcare system to help lower costs and improve quality of care.

- Prioritize federal healthcare dollars - eliminate wasteful, inefficient or unrelated spending in Healthcare Appropriations bills.

The Republican Main Street Partnership (RMSP) is dedicated to promoting and building a pragmatic, thoughtful, fiscally conservative, and inclusive "Governing Majority," where political debate is encouraged to promote solutions to improve the lives of all Americans. Embracing the full spectrum of center-right ideologies and values in order to build coalitions, RMSP is the largest organization of elected leaders who are in the mold of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan. For more information on RMSP, visit our website at www.republicanmainstreet.org.