Rochelle Cummings’ heart was pounding as she came on stage to speak at the Medal of Honor Banquet Friday night. Producer of the Lightning Bear Studios’ documentary “A Hero’s Welcome,” Cummings was both nervous and honored to speak to the packed Civic Center crowd. Read more »

As promised, in an earlier post about the re-emergence of former Texas hospital executive Rick Scott...here is Congressman Michael Burgess' 2-minute interview with Scott, videotaped this week. Read more »

Ashton Kutcher has one, and so does Britney Spears. Jimmy Fallon, Coldplay, The New York Times and U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Lewisville, tweet too. Among celebrities and journalists, Burgess is one of many Texas lawmakers who use the social networking Web site Twitter to connect with constituents. "I think my constituents in North Texas as well as any Americans who are… Read more »

Health insurers would be required to disclose any limits or exclusions of benefits to plan participants under a bill passed overwhelmingly by the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday." Many consumers or employers shopping for health care coverage are led to believe that care for a broken arm, for example, is the same regardless of how the injury happened but that is not the case," said Republican Representative Michael Burgess, a physician who sponsored the legislation. Read more »

The House moved Tuesday to make it easier for patients to understand health insurance plans’ limits and restrictions before they sign up. By a vote of 422-3, the House passed a bill (HR 1253), sponsored by Michael C. Burgess, R-Texas, that would require that people signing up for a health plan receive in writing an explanation of treatment limits or non-covered conditions, along with other plan restrictions, “in a form that is easily understandable.” Read more »

Health care experts at a forum Monday debated such questions as how payments to medical providers might be structured and how Medicare’s administrative costs compare with those of private health insurers. Read more »

U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Lewisville, and three other lawmakers have filed a bill to exempt dirt bikes, ATVs and snowmobiles for children 12 and under from the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, a 2008 law designed to protect kids from lead exposure. Read more »

In the past few months, Congress has passed bailouts and so-called “economic stimulus” packages to the tune of trillions of taxpayers’ money. I have consistently voted against every single one of them because I don’t believe our children and grandchildren should have to pay for these mistakes. Read more »

‘I just want to figure out what works,” President Barack Obama said during the recent White House forum on health care. Many leaders have centered their health care reform discussion on a “new” government-option insurance. Medicare and Medicaid are the current government-sponsored health care options. They are not new, and many people, myself included, would argue that there is certainly room for improvement. I would hardly call them the model for reform. Read more »

As of April 1, federal tobacco taxes are increasing — some by more than 2,000 percent — to fund the $32.8 billion expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. The measure, the first major bill signed into law by President Barack Obama in February, will give health insurance to more uninsured children. Read more »