Chairman Black Discusses Patient-Centered Health Care and Responsible Stewardship of Taxpayer Dollars

Washington, DC - Yesterday, Chairman Diane Black sat down with Mary Scott of WBIR Knoxville to discuss Obamacare repeal and replace, as well as the priorities for the House Budget Committee. Highlights from the interview are below. You can watch the full interview here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE92TfFmHP0&feature=youtu.be.

On Obamacare repeal and replace:

"We're seeing an implosion. Just a self-implosion. And if nothing is done then we're going to see more and more damage and hurt done to our constituents and constituents across the entire state. . . . [W]e see premiums that are rising, deductibles that are rising. More and more insurance companies are leaving the health arena...And so we want to put something in that's more patient-centered, give them an opportunity to say 'here's what I want at a price I can afford.'"

On changes for those on the exchanges:

"I want to tell them that they do not need to worry, because we are going to make sure that they don't fall off the cliff. I was here in the state of Tennessee in the Senate working with the then Governor Bredesen, the Democrat governor, to dissolve TennCare and to put something in place that did help to shore up, especially those that had preexisting decisions. But I want them to know that we're not going to let them fall off the cliff, that they're going to have a glide path to make sure that they have good, affordable care available to them."

On goals for the House Budget Committee:

"Our goal is to do everything we can to work toward balance. We want to be able to show the American people that we are understanding that right now our debt and deficit spending is not going to help future generations, it doesn't help us today. And so we're looking at every single penny that's in the federal budget and making sure that we're saying that dollar is worth spending."

Read this original document at: http://budget.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=394533