Senator Richard Burr: Netanyahu and BCBS Reports Losses

This week, I was honored to hear Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speak to Congress. In his speech, he asked for America’s unwavering support for Israel, a country that has been a consistent friend and ally in a tumultuous region. It’s unfortunate the Prime Minister felt that he even had to ask us for our support. Over the last six years, I have watched this Administration’s foreign policy failures in the Middle East pile up and erode our relationship with Israel. I will continue to support the United States’ partnership and am thankful for the Prime Minister’s address to Congress on Tuesday.

Monday, the independent Center for Health and Economy released their analysis of the Patient Choice, Affordability, Responsibility, and Empowerment (CARE) Act. The Center for Health and Economy found that the Patient CARE Act would lower premiums, improve access to providers, increase medical productivity, and reduce the nation’s deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars.

Better access, higher quality, and more affordability – these are the central tenets that any health care reform should strive for, and they are precisely what the Patient CARE Act would achieve. Americans continue to grapple with the messy fallout and broken promises of Obamacare – including higher costs, inaccurate tax forms, reduced choices, and increased difficulty finding a doctor. There is a better way. This analysis confirms that empowering patients, not Washington, leads to a stronger, more accountable and responsive health care system. We look forward to continuing to work with our colleagues on advancing health reforms that will protect Americans who are suffering from Obamacare’s costly consequences as we move toward a system that puts health care back in the hands of patients, families, and their doctors, not Washington.

Read about the Center for Health and Economy’s analysis here and learn more about the Patient CARE Act here.

This week, Blue Cross and Blue Shield reported its first loss in 15 years due to Obamacare. The “Affordable Care Act” continues to be unaffordable. You can read News & Observer’s story here.