WASHINGTON – Congressman Parker Griffith released the following statement today regarding the introduction of health care legislation on the floor of the United States House of Representatives:

“I remain against this bill and plan to vote against it on the House floor.  The 1,990-page, updated House version of health care reform was delivered to my office at 10:30 eastern time Thursday morning.  As I began to read the bill, it became clear that a government-run public option would remain the foundation of the legislation’s aim.  I was hopeful that we would see a new bill that aggressively tackled tort reform, addressed the growing problem of physician shortages in our nation hospitals, and did not include a public option.  This did not happen, and I cannot support this bill.

“Improving the best health care system in the world to include the 23 million Americans without access to affordable care is a worthy goal, but we cannot do it by adding debt to an already overburdened treasury.  I am hopeful that a health care reform bill will come out of the House and Senate conference committee that both Democrats and Republicans can support.”

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