Congressman Steve Womack has proudly represented the Third District of Arkansas since his election in 2010. He is currently a senior member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, where he is the Ranking Member of the Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) Subcommittee and also sits on the Defense and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Subcommittees. He formerly served as the Chairman of the House Budget Committee and has been on the Republican Whip Team since his arrival in Congress.
Spending on health care has outpaced economic growth for years. In 1960, national health care expenditures made up 4.7 percent of our gross domestic product (GDP). In 2013, that percentage had risen to 17.4, and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) anticipates that will only continue to rise.
The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was an unprecedented expansion of government that put tens of millions of Americans at risk of losing their current health insurance coverage and drives up the cost of insurance and care. In June 2012, the Supreme Court upheld PPACA’s constitutionality, and we must accept the reality that it is unfortunately the law of the land.
Congress must continue to focus on repealing and amending the most troublesome aspects of the law and pass real reforms – such as tort reforms and health insurance portability – that will bend health care’s exploding cost curve.