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Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas)
Specialty: OB-GYN
Active license: Yes
Age: 61
Elected: 2002
Medical degree: M.D., University of Texas Medical School at Houston, 1977
Sponsored legislation: HR 360 (requires president, vice president and appointees to participate in ACA’s health insurance exchanges); HR 570 (calls for inclusion of dental facilities in National Health Security Strategy); HR 1214 (repeals funding for school-based health center construction); HR 2500 (gives campuses of multicampus hospital systems equal access to EHR incentives); HR 5800 (calls for states to require hospitals to disclose charges and provide estimates of out-of-pocket costs); HR 6482 (requires the Congressional Budget Office to determine potential savings from preventive health measures)
Key healthcare votes
Yea: Repeal of ACA, HR 2 (2011), HR 6079 (2012); repeal funding for health insurance exchanges, HR 1213 (2011); repeal prevention and public health fund, HR 1217 (2011); Medicare prescription drugs, HR 1 (2003)
Nay: ACA, HR 3590 (2010); CHIP expansion, HR 2 (2009)
(Answers provided in an interview)
How does being a physician affect your approach to Congress?
“You’ve spent your life in the trenches. You know everything isn’t always black-and-white, cut-and-dried.”
What happens now with the ACA?
“It is incumbent upon our committee (Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee) to examine everything coming out of HHS and the Office of Personnel Management for all of the federal exchanges.”
What’s a healthcare priority the ACA didn’t address?
“You have to have some ability for doctors to negotiate price. The very uncomfortable fact that doctors, even if at a cocktail party mention what they charge, could be hauled before the FTC to defend themselves—this is not theory; it’s happened.” |
