Washington, D.C. – Congressman Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (TX-26), Vice Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health and Chairman of the Congressional Health Care Caucus, released the following statement after the House of Representatives passed H.R. 6079, Repeal of Obamacare Act, by a vote of 244 to 185.

“Americans should have the freedom to make their own health care decisions. In March of 2010 the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law.  It was drafted quickly and behind closed doors. It included secret deals, loopholes, drafting errors, and allowed federal agencies to be created without Congressional knowledge or oversight. The bottom line, it was not the way to achieve meaningful reform. In addition, the Supreme Court ruled just last month that the law is in fact a tax – this is after President Obama continually told the American people that it was not a tax.

“The health care system in America needs reform and improvements, but the law that was passed will cost American taxpayers trillions of dollars, will not improve care, nor will it make care more affordable. We need to start fresh and need to address the issues with common sense improvements that focus on the real issues at hand: creating a health care system that is focused on patients instead of payments, quality instead of quantity, affordability instead of cheapness, and innovation instead of stagnation.

“The first step is eliminating bad legislation that simply does not work. So today I voted to repeal the president’s health care law. It is important that the American people know where their elected representatives stand on this issue and clearly the Senate needs to take up this legislation.”

Dr. Burgess spoke on the House Floor during the debate in support of the legislation. You can view the video by clicking here.