Congresswoman Candice Miller
WASHINGTON – U.S. Congresswoman Candice Miller (MI-10) today joined her colleagues in signing the Declaration of Health Care Independence. This declaration is a commitment made by members of Congress to protect the rights of every American citizen when making decisions on their health care.
Congresswoman Miller said:
“As a representative of the people, I have a responsibility to uphold each and every American’s rights. This is especially important when dealing with something as significant as a person’s health care. It is unacceptable to be crafting our nation’s health care reform behind closed doors, especially when President Obama and the Democratic Majority in Congress promised the American people transparency. Additionally, it is unacceptable to impose massive new spending and new taxes on individuals and employers through federal-government mandates which will require the purchase of health care or cause individuals to pay a huge tax and possibly face criminal penalties.”
“Congress must work toward bringing down costs and expanding access to health care insurance for every American while preserving the quality of care patients receive. I believe this can be done at a far lower cost to American taxpayers. I do not believe that the United States Congress has the Constitutional authority to impose mandates on individuals or employers which compels them to purchase health care insurance or any other product. I cannot and I will not support legislation that I believe may violate the oath I took to uphold the Constitution.”
“There is no issue more personal than deciding how to provide health care for yourself or your family. Every American citizen must have their right to make their own decisions about their health care without the interference of federal government bureaucrats. If the legislation currently before Congress becomes law, our future generations will be burdened with massive new debt that would undoubtedly result from further federal intrusions into personal health care decisions. Congress must do better.”
“This declaration is our way forward to truly reforming our health care system in a bipartisan manner, where all ideas are invited to the table.”
Declaration of Health Care Independence
In order to retain the Blessings of Liberty as secured to us by our Founding Fathers and as expressed in our Constitution, We the People reject the imposition upon us of a new, Washington-controlled system of government-run health care. We demand Constitutional protection of the right to make our own health decisions and our own health care choices free of government denials, bureaucratic red-tape, and greater intergenerational debt.
A Washington takeover of American health care will
1) Deny fundamental personal and economic liberties and indisputably violate the Principle of Limited Government as established by the Constitution;
2) Impose increased costs and taxes upon individuals, families, and businesses, as well as taxpayers at the federal, state, and local levels;
3) Irreparably cripple the American economy, at the cost of jobs, businesses, productivity, and quality of life;
4) Create an inescapable new tax by imposing individual and employer mandates;
5) Institutionalize a massive, ever-expanding federal bureaucracy that is impersonal and impractical;
6) Empower bureaucrats to interfere in the doctor-patient relationship, undermine the quality of care, limit choice, and increase the cost of health care.
We have appealed to the decency of the elected majority to respect the rights of all Americans, but their leaders have been deaf to the Voice of the People. We are appalled by their cavalier disregard of the Constitution and of the demands of the People. We are repulsed by their blatant political bribes and kickbacks.
We, therefore, the People and Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, do solemnly Publish and Declare that health care reform, as a matter of principle must
1) Protect as inviolate the vital doctor-patient relationship;
2) Reject any addition to the crushing national debt heaped upon all Americans;
3) Improve, rather than diminish, the quality of care that Americans enjoy;
4) Be negotiated publically, transparently, with genuine accountability and oversight, and be free from political favoritism;
5) Treat private citizens at least as well as political officials;
6) Protect taxpayers from funding of abortion and abortion coverage;
7) Reject all new mandates on patients, employers, individuals, or states;
/8) Prohibit expansion of taxpayer funded health care to those unlawfully present in the United States;
9) Guarantee Equal Protection under the law and the Constitution;
10) Empower, rather than limit, an open and accessible marketplace of health care choice and opportunity.
