Healthcare

Today is the 20th anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act, the first bill President Bill Clinton signed into law and the first national law ever to help workers meet the dual demands of work and family.  In the two decades since that historic signing, workers in this country have taken FMLA leave more than 100 million times. That’s time that allowed them to manage medical complications during pregnancies, care for new babies, recover from heart attacks, get treatment for cancer, care for parents who had strokes or whose diabetes was out of control, and more.
 
Thanks to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), workers covered by the law could do even more than take leave when they needed it most; they could do so with confidence that their health insurance would continue and their job, or a comparable one, would be there when they returned.

In October of this year, millions of Americans are expected to begin enrolling in health plans offered through new health insurance marketplaces. The Administration recently released proposed rules governing the design of health plans on exchange markets, including private-sector accreditation.
 
Private-sector accreditation will be mandatory for health plans offered on marketplaces. This signals the Administration’s strong commitment to market-based, best practices for health insurance marketplaces, including the critical consumer protections offered by private-sector accreditation.

President Obama just named protecting Medicare for future generations as one of his chief goals in the negotiations over the federal deficit and national
debt.

Unfortunately, by championing Medicare's structural status quo, the president is putting current seniors' care at risk -- and may still leave the entitlement program short of funds to pay for future retirees.

Take the portion of the "fiscal cliff" deal that cuts $15 billion in payments to hospitals.

During this presidential inauguration week, our nation reflects on President Barack Obama’s first term and speculates as to how the president’s second term will be distinct. It is unthinkable that the president and vice president might have abandoned for their second term the national priority of reeling in “obscene” profits, but shockingly, this appears to be the case.
 
Addressing unjust profiteering prevailed as a major national theme during the Obama-Biden administration’s first four years in office. Occupy Wall Street camp-outs sought to liberate the masses from powerful, corporate greed. House Democrats proposed up to a 100 percent tax on oil company earnings above a government-dictated limit. Obama and Biden won re-election on their relentless calls to increase taxes on high incomes because, as the president stated, “at a certain point, you’ve made enough money.”

With the Super Bowl this Sunday in New Orleans, the pro football faithful across the country (and around the world) are readying themselves for the big game. While much of the pre-game chatter centers on the narrative of the dueling Harbaugh brothers and Ray Lewis’ impending retirement, Congress is preparing for future hearings to question National Football League (NFL) players on human growth hormone (HGH) use. With questions about and increased congressional interest in player safety, drug testing, and labor issues, the NFL knows lobbying and campaign donations certainly can’t hurt.

Forty years ago, the Supreme Court ruled on a case filed by one "Jane Roe." It's easy to forget that the court not only permitted abortion; it made abortion into a new constitutional right. 55 million abortions later, the debate has not subsided. In fact, many observers believe that balance has tilted towards the defense of life. Jane Roe herself has had a change of heart, many scholars again take seriously the "original intent" of our Constitution, and support for the pro-life movement has grown in opinion polls.
 
Time magazine's January 14 cover story succinctly stated the facts. "40 Years Ago, Abortion-Rights Activists Won an Epic Victory with Roe. V. Wade: They've Been Losing Ever Since." This very day, about half a million Americans, mostly young, are expected to trek to Washington for the annual March for Life.

President Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA), which ironically is unaffordable, is also bad medicine for America. The president predicted that after passing the ACA premiums would be cut by $2,500, but instead the average premium has increased by more than $3,000. You’ve probably read about the 21 new taxes the law imposes and how the law cuts more than $700 billion out of Medicare to fund a new entitlement. But one of the worst parts of the ACA is one you may not know about — the creation of an entity called the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB).
 
The IPAB is an unelected, unaccountable bureaucracy that has been granted sweeping powers to reduce Medicare spending. This denial-of-care board will become operational on April 30 of this year when Medicare’s Chief Actuary will make a determination as to whether Medicare spending will exceed an arbitrary target set by formula. In the event that spending grows faster than permitted, the IPAB will propose a series of Medicare cuts. Given that Medicare only pays physicians only 80 percent of what private insurers do, any additional cuts could severely limit patients’ access to care. This is because proposed cuts will likely reduce payments to physicians and other health care providers.

Driving in America is a way of life – and death.

No more important challenge exists than finding ways to improve the safety of everyone while riding in motor vehicles, yet what happens when a vehicle crashes is often sealed in multi-million dollar lawsuit settlements. 

Monetary settlements do not enhance vehicle and highway safety or serve the greater good. Instead, they seal knowledge of unsafe vehicles.

With health care costs spiraling out of control, policymakers are increasingly focused on promoting prevention, including incorporating wellness and disease-prevention efforts into the workplace. The potential savings are massive. In our home state of California alone, preventable chronic disease costs $22 billion a year in medical costs and lost productivity, according to the Department of Public Health This push for workplace wellness  is crucially important, both for improving Americans’ health and for controlling rising healthcare expenditures If done wrong, however, these well-intended efforts could do significant harm.

As a member of Congress, I took an oath to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution. I did not swear to uphold only the sections I liked. The Bill of Rights contain civil liberties so fundamentally important that no matter how unpopular at times, these rights are guaranteed and no president, no Congress and no person can deprive them from us. The Second Amendment, hated by some, is a fundamental right as well. I, and millions of others, see the wisdom of the Second Amendment even as many do not. But whether you see its wisdom, all public officials were sworn to uphold it.

And this is where I part ways with the president. On Wednesday, President Obama sought to undermine constitutional guarantees when he unveiled 23 measures, in a combination of executive orders and proposed new legislation, to restrict gun ownership.