Health Care Hypocrisy of Congressman Flores

Congressman Bill Flores joined the Congressional Republicans in the House of Representatives in voting to repeal health care reform. A law that among other things bars insurance companies from denying coverage to applicants on the basis of pre-existing conditions, requires insurance companies to spend at least 80 percent of their premium revenues on medical costs, and enables children to stay on their parents' policies until they turn 26 and closes the "donut hole" in the Medicare drug plan.

However, the most interesting effect of voting to repeal health care reform is that Flores is also voting to increase the budget deficit. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reports that the law will reduce annual deficits by a cumulative $143 billion through 2019 and $230 billion through 2021. Meaning Flores voted to increase the deficit by $230 billion over ten years. During an interview with Bloomberg, Flores said that one of the priorities for any piece of legislation was what it did to “balance the budget.” After making government spending and the deficit a focal point of his campaign against Democrat Chet Edwards, Flores has voted for what he campaigned against.

After voting to repeal health care reform, which will extend coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans, Flores then voted against repealing his own government health care. That’s right. While voting to prevent millions of Americans from receiving health care through government subsidies, Flores voted to ensure that he maintains his health care through a government subsidy.

By the way Congressman Flores, the Texas Department of Insurance issued a report last week saying that health care reform will make it easier for many Texas families to get health coverage. It seems as though that our new Congressman is going to stand in lockstep behind the political agenda that has been put forth by Congressional Republicans, and ignore the real policy implications and the affects that that agenda has on Texas families.