Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson today signed onto H.R. 4901, legislation that repeals the recently enacted Democrat healthcare overall. The bill, offered by Representative Jerry Moran (R-KS) would repeal the bill back to the date of enactment and restore underlying law.

“I strongly believe the democrats’ healthcare bill is the wrong direction our nation and may well be unconstitutional,” said Simpson. “I believe the best thing we could do is repeal the bill in its entirety and start over by passing smaller bills that enjoy bipartisan support and focus on bringing down costs for American healthcare consumers.”

Simpson also stressed that while working toward a full-scale repeal, Republicans in Congress and in the states should work to change the law in any way possible. “The simple truth is that the prospects for full-scale repeal are slim as long as President Obama is in office and can veto any legislation we might be able to pass through Congress,” said Simpson. “So while we wait for the Presidential election of 2012, we should move forward with other measures that hold more near-term promise of blunting the impact of the Democrats bill. Those efforts include supporting Idaho’s Constitutional challenge to the Democrats bill, amending the bill to alter its most onerous provisions, and seeking limitations on funding of its implementation. Limiting the reach and impact of this bill must be a multi-pronged approach.”

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.

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 association health plans to create larger purchasing pools and 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.

Simpson is also one of 67 Members of Congress to sign a pledge to support repeal of the Democrats healthcare reform legislation and passage of legislation that brings down the cost of healthcare without growing the involvement of government.