Michael Grimm on Health Care

Campaign Website Statements

Issues: Healthcare

Well, they went and did it. Despite overwhelming public opinion against their scheme, the Obama-Pelosi-Reid Democrats rammed the first step towards socialized medicine through Congress and into law. While there is some hope that lawsuits filed by Attorneys General from across the country may lead to the Supreme Court overturning the law, we will have our chance at the ballot box this November. I am committed to joining the new Republican Majority in January 2011 in working to repeal and replace this legislation with common sense reform.

While my opponent, Michael McMahon, will boast proudly of his vote against this so-called reform, it does not change the fact that his very FIRST vote as a member of Congress in January 2009 was to elect Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. He has been a faithful vote for her agenda and is complicit in this effort to enact the legislative agenda of the far-left.

My position on Obamacare has been consistent from Day One. I opposed both the House and Senate bills and the reconciliation which was ultimately signed by the President.

Despite repeated assurances from 2008 candidate Barack Obama, there was no input from the opposition party and no transparency whatsoever, effectively shutting out anyone who disagreed, as well as those who will foot the bill - the American public.

What has emerged is a piece of legislation which re-shapes the greatest healthcare system in the world and essentially gives the federal government control over one-sixth of our economy. That such a monumental bill was crafted in secrecy is a travesty of the highest order, but sadly, all too common in this Pelosi/Reid Congress.

This legislation is too expensive, too complicated - and simply unnecessary. This Democrat Congress has pounded a square peg into a round hole, horribly complicating a problem when they should be seeking simpler solutions in the free markets.

Let's get to the basics. We can bend the cost curve down, rather than up, by enacting serious tort reform and by permitting and promoting interstate competition between insurance providers. Rather than penalize and fine small businesses in an attempt to force them to expand coverage, we should incentivize them with tax breaks and credits.

Socialized medicine, like any command economy, has failed everywhere it's been tried, and injecting large doses of federal bureaucracy into this system will have the same crippling effect. Our free-market, capitalist system rewards the innovative and the efficient - let it work for healthcare, and we in America will continue to have a system unsurpassed by any country in the world.

The closed-door deals that were doled out to states like Nebraska, who, through the "Cornhusker Kickback" to gain the vote of Democratic Senator Ben Nelson, will not have to pay the increases to Medicare for perpetuity, is, in the opinion of this former FBI Agent, tantamount to nothing less than a bribe. I spent more than 5 1/2 years undercover during my 11+ year tenure with the FBI to eradicate exactly this type of behavior on Wall Street, among local politicians in New Jersey and Chicago and with corrupt police officers, yet our Congress feels it is proper in this instance; well I say enough is enough.

It is time for common sense, honor and integrity to be injected back into Washington; as your Congressman, I will do exactly that.

Voting Record

Tort Reform

In March of 2012, the House voted on HR 5, also know as the Help Efficient, Accessible, Low Cost, Timely Healthcare (HEALTH) Act of 2011. This legislation would have set a statute of limitations of three years after the date of manifestation of an injury or one year after the claimant discovers the injury for a lawsuit, made each party liable only for the amount of damages directly proportional to such party's percentage of responsibility, allowed the court to restrict the payment of attorney contingency fees, authorized punitive damages only where there is clear and convincing evidence that a person acted with malicious intent to injure the claimant, limited punitive damages to $500,000, limited noneconomic damages to $250,000, and denied punitive damages in the case of products approved, cleared, or licensed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), or otherwise considered in compliance with FDA standards. Michael Grimm voted in favor of the HEALTH Act.

Repeal of Health Care Reform

In early 2011, the House voted on repealing the 2009-2010 health care reform legislation, called "Obamacare" by its opponents. Michael Grimm voted in favor of repealing the health care legislation.

Sponsored and Cosponsored Legislation

Session-112; Bill Number-H R 2; Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act - Cosponsor

Repeals the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, effective as of its enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by such Act. Repeals the health care provisions of the Health Care and Education and Reconciliation Act of 2010, effective as of the Act's enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by the Act's health care provisions.

Session-112; Bill Number-H R 5; Tort Reform - HEALTH Act - Cosponsor

HR 5 was also know as the Help Efficient, Accessible, Low Cost, Timely Healthcare (HEALTH) Act of 2011. This legislation would have set a statute of limitations of three years after the date of manifestation of an injury or one year after the claimant discovers the injury for a lawsuit, made each party liable only for the amount of damages directly proportional to such party's percentage of responsibility, allowed the court to restrict the payment of attorney contingency fees, authorized punitive damages only where there is clear and convincing evidence that a person acted with malicious intent to injure the claimant, limited punitive damages to $500,000, limited noneconomic damages to $250,000, and denied punitive damages in the case of products approved, cleared, or licensed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), or otherwise considered in compliance with FDA standards.

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