{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://web.archive.org/web/20140223160802/http://messer.house.gov/media-center/editorials/no-bureaucrats-between-you-and-your-doctor", "No Bureaucrats Between You and Your Doctor", "2013-10-31", "2013", "2013-10", "Republican", "House", "IN", "Luke Messer", "M001189", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "\u201cIf you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period.\u201d That\u2019s the promise the President made to the American people in 2009. Yet, multiple news outlets report millions of hardworking Americans in the individual market will not be able to keep their plans, \u201ceven if they like them.\u201d People are losing the health care coverage that meets their individual needs because Washington says those plans aren\u2019t acceptable.\nThat is unacceptable. No Washington bureaucrat should come between a patient and their doctor.\u00a0 Your health care is your business.\u00a0 You deserve individualized, patient-centered care, not the plan the government says you have to accept.\nBecause of Washington\u2019s interference, premiums are rising, out-of-pocket expenses are going up, people are losing their current plans and taxes are increasing. Workers\u2019 hours are being cut so employers won\u2019t have to carry the burden of the Affordable Care Act\u2019s mandates.\nI have introduced and co-sponsored numerous bills to provide some reprieve from the worst parts of the President\u2019s health care law for individuals and small business owners.\u00a0 Those bills include restoring the traditional 40-hour work week, exempting schools from the law\u2019s penalties, and delaying the individual mandate for those living in an area where either a state or federally-operated exchange website is not fully functional.\u00a0 Yet, all of them were rebuffed by the President and the Senate. We need to put politics aside and make genuine progress.\nDuring this week\u2019s House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testified more than 20 million people have visited healthcare.gov, yet when asked about enrollment numbers, she had no answer.\u00a0 I, along with other Hoosier lawmakers, sent a letter to Secretary Sebelius requesting information on the number of people in each congressional district statewide who have successfully enrolled in the health insurance exchanges. We have yet to get it. The President\u2019s health care law requires every American to carry insurance.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have any, you\u2019re asked to go to the website to buy it. But, the website doesn\u2019t work.\u00a0 Do you really trust the government to control your health decisions when that same government can\u2019t make its own website work?\nThe American people are being let down.\u00a0 We need to do better. Democrats and Republicans must work together and go line-by-line through the President\u2019s health care law.\u00a0 We should keep the ideas that work and get rid of the failures that are holding back real progress toward making health care more affordable.\u00a0 It will take time to get this right.\u00a0 But, we must suspend the individual mandate and put you back in charge of your health care.\nIn my next column, I will lay out a common sense, nonpartisan health care plan with free-market, patient-centered reforms to lower costs and solve problems in our health care system.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140223160802/http://messer.house.gov/media-center/editorials/no-bureaucrats-between-you-and-your-doctor"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.478068996220827, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}