Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) has announced that he will reintroduce his bill to cancel out ObamaCare when the Senate reconvenes Jan. 25. In response to yesterday’s successful vote in the House to repeal the bill President Obama signed into law last year, formally titled “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” Vitter released the following statement:

“Obamacare is unconstitutional, raises taxes and premiums, cuts Medicare by half a trillion dollars, and puts government bureaucrats between patients and their doctors. Instead of this big-government approach, we need the targeted, common-sense reforms I’ve laid out with others to dramatically reduce cost.”

Vitter introduced his alternative legislation in March 2010, just after ObamaCare passed. He opposes the president’s plan because in his view it would enable Washington D.C. policymakers to infer with the doctor-patient relationship. Moreover, while Obama’s plan is described as a “government option,” Vitter anticipates that would quickly become the “dominant” or “only option.” Independent studies show that up to 60 percent of Americans would be coerced into the government option, he points out.

Vitter has also expressed concern that the government-run plan would ultimately ration care, limit choices for patients, and put bureaucrats in charge much as they are in England and Canada.

Some of key policy proscriptions Vitter has offered up as an alternative to ObamaCare include the following:

  • Supporting a strong Patients Bill of Rights, even when it means standing up to my own party leadership.
  • Authoring legislation to extend LaCHIP, Louisiana’s children’s health care program.
  • Voting to make health care premiums 100 percent deductible and to create new tax breaks for elderly home care and dependent care.
  • Writing legislation to provide tax cuts that will help increase access to long-term care insurance.
  • Writing legislation to allow reimportation of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada and other countries.
  • Writing legislation to speed up the approval of generic drugs so Louisianans can buy cheaper versions of FDA-approved prescription drugs
  • Fighting frivolous lawsuits that are driving doctors out of business and increasing costs for patients

Kevin Mooney is the Investigative Reporter with The Pelican Institute. He can be reached at kmooney@pelicanpolicy.org.