Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson voted no tonight on H.R. 4872, the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. This legislation passed the U.S. Senate earlier today with a vote of 56-43 and passed the U.S. House of Representatives with a final vote of 220-207.
 
“As I have said before, this bill will ultimately damage the health care system in the United States, not to mention adding another $2 to 3 trillion to our national debt,” said Simpson. “It is unfortunate that Congress didn’t act in a bipartisan fashion to pass commonsense reforms that would have actually brought down the cost of health care for our citizens.”

Simpson and 70 of his colleagues have cosponsored H.R. 1086, the HEALTH Act. This bill would implement effective medical malpractice reform and put an end to junk lawsuits by placing caps on non-economic damages and limiting attorney fees. This bill would save as much as $120 billion in wasteful spending by stemming the practice of defensive medicine.

Simpson is also a cosponsor of H.R. 2607, the Small Business Healthcare Fairness Act, which would allow small businesses to band together through associations to buy health care coverage. Large corporations and labor unions already leverage their size and buying power to secure lower premiums and rates when buying health insurance for their employees and members. This bill would give America's small businesses the same advantages to make health care coverage for their employees more affordable.
 
In addition, Simpson supports reforms to prohibit insurers from denying coverage to people because of pre-existing condition as well as reforms to make the purchase of health insurance for individuals tax-exempt like it is for employer-sponsored insurance.  He also supports prescription drug re-importation, which would control prescription drug costs by allowing Americans to buy FDA-approved prescription drugs from places such as Canada and Europe where drugs are sold for much less money.