Republican Sen. Richard Burr said the White House's insistence on a government-run insurance plan has been the chief obstacle to formulating workable health-care overhaul legislation.
The North Carolina lawmaker said he is hopeful that public outcry over the Obama administration's proposed "public option" for health insurance will soften the White House's position, paving the way for legislation that could be approved during this congressional session.
"If that insistence on the public option breaks down, we'll see where we get in moving the ball down the field," Burr said.
Burr visited Hickory on Thursday as part of a two-day swing through western North Carolina.
During a 90-minute session at Frye Regional Medical Center, he discussed health-care reform with the hospital's doctors and administrators.
Burr said the session, which was closed to the public, gave him a chance to hear first-hand the fears and concerns medical professionals have about proposed health-care reform.
"What I heard were confirmations of fears that aren't being heard in Washington as this debate progresses," Burr said.
Burr said physicians expressed concerns that there are not enough doctors to handle the massive increase in patient numbers that would result from the White House's proposed health-care overhaul, and that "if we did the wrong thing there would be a mass retirement of older physicians" in response.
"Like the American people, physicians are afraid we might do the wrong thing," Burr said.
"What is unique about medicine is that this is not just a profession to doctors. They go into medicine because they genuinely want to help people. And they are seeing that component of medicine marginalized because of government intervention."
Burr said the White House's proposed overhaul plan also would give too much power to a Secretary of Health and Human Services, now and in the future.
"I'm not sure the American people want one individual making decisions that could include cutting the scope of health benefits," Burr said.
Burr, a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, recently joined other GOP lawmakers in proposing a plan that would raise money by taxing health benefits and use the revenue to give people tax credits to buy their own care.
The Patients' Choice Act is widely touted as the Republican answer to health-care reform in the United States.
Burr said the plan is viable for many reasons, chiefly because it is "the only plan that is financially sustainable well into the future."
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