| After President Barack Obama's speech to Congress, Louisiana Congressman Charles Boustany, a cardiothoracic surgeon, gave the Republican rebuttal.
You can read the whole speech here. Let's take a look at it one segment at a time.
"Republicans are pleased that President Obama came to the Capitol tonight. We agree much needs to be done to lower the cost of health care for all Americans. On that goal, Republicans are ready - and we've been ready - to work with the President for common-sense reforms that our nation can afford.
"Afford is an important word. Our country is facing many challenges. The cost of health care is rising. Federal spending is soaring. We're piling huge debt on our children. And families and small businesses are struggling through a jobless recovery, with more than 2.4 million private-sector jobs lost since February.
"It's clear the American people want health care reform, but they want their elected leaders to get it right. Most Americans wanted to hear the President tell Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid and the rest of Congress that it's time to start over on a common-sense, bipartisan plan focused on lowering the cost of health care while improving quality. That's what I heard over the past several months in talking to thousands of my constituents.
We all can agree that health care costs are high. It is a fact that the United States spends more on health care than any other nation in the world. Yet, our quality of care does not correspond with the money we are paying for that care and that is without millions of those who are uninsured who do not have access to such care.
Health care reform is about costs. But it is also about improving access to health care and insurance. Not mentioning that shows where the Republican mindset is on this issue. For them, it's all about selective fiscal conservatism. It was okay to spend billions (perhaps into the trillions now) on the war effort in Iraq. But it is not okay to spend that money on your own citizens to make sure they have the best access to health care.
"Replacing your family's current health care with government-run health care is not the answer. In fact, it'll make health care much more expensive. That's not just my personal diagnosis as a doctor or a Republican; it's the conclusion of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office - the neutral scorekeeper that determines the cost of major bills.
Obviously, the Republicans haven't been listening. A single-payer system - which is where we should have started with in this discussion - would create that government-run system they talk about. The public option? Not so much.
The Republicans are trying to scare families into opposing reform. They are trying to say that the government is going to move in and replace your health care. That is not what the public option will do. The public option is there to provide an opportunity for those without insurance to get insurance. That is why the public option will exist and that is why a public option is necessary.
"Let's also talk about letting families and businesses buy insurance across state lines. I and many other Republicans believe that that will provide real choice and competition to lower the cost of health insurance. Unfortunately, the President disagrees.
This was a concept pushed by 2008 Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain. It was dismissed then and it will be dismissed now. The reasons are many. For one, allowing this would create a consumer protection mess. The Republicans wouldn't mind that (see financial crisis) but when you are talking health insurance, it's not a good thing.
Also, as the New America Foundation showed last year, premiums would go up, benefits would decrease and more people would become uninsured over time. So instead of serving as reform, this would create more of a problem.
Altogether, Boustany mentioned lowering the cost of health care five times in his speech. He talked about improving quality. But not once in his speech did he mention increasing access to health care or insuring more Americans. The cost of health care is a problem. The quality is also a problem. But providing more and better access to health care is also a problem and Boustany and the Republicans failed to address that, which was a glaring omission in their poorly constructed rebuttal.
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