U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach (PA-6th District) issued the following statement in response to the U.S. Senate's rush to pass a health care bill before Christmas:

"While Mother Nature was dumping a record-setting amount of snow on southeastern Pennsylvania this weekend, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his Democrat leadership colleagues unleashed a blizzard of taxpayer dollars in a frantic attempt to pass a health care bill that has more to do with scoring political points than making insurance affordable and improving the quality of health care. And American taxpayers will be paying for these deals aimed at paving the path to government-controlled health care long after the snow melts.

"After promising Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu $300 million in taxpayer dollars last month in exchange for her vote, Reid struck backroom deals that will force Pennsylvania taxpayers to help finance a $1.1 billion Medicaid bailout over the next 10 years for Nebraska, Massachusetts and Vermont. That is in addition to an estimated $2.2 billion Pennsylvania taxpayers will have to cover during the next decade if the Democrats’ health care proposal becomes law. Reid also slipped in a $100 million earmark for an unidentified hospital in an unidentified state to build a new facility.

"This avalanche of spending would be bad enough. But the Senate bill also retains the same job-crushing taxes and big government bureaucracy contained in the House health care bill, which I voted against on November 7. Taxes would climb by about $400 billion per year. That includes a $2 billion per year tax on medical testing products that help detect ovarian, breast and pancreatic cancer; products used in hip-replacement surgery and to help patients heal broken limbs; heart stents used in life-saving operations; and other medical devices. This tax would hit Pennsylvania particularly hard because of the approximately 600 medical device manufactures in the Commonwealth that employ roughly 20,000 people in jobs that often pay more than $50,000 per year.

"All of this taxing and spending will result in a bill that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office confirmed would raise health insurance premiums by $300 per year for individuals and $2,100 per year for middle-class families. That’s unacceptable.

"Rather than buying votes, leaders in the House and Senate should be working on medical malpractice reforms that could save patients up to $140 billion per year and other bipartisan measures that would increase competition among private insurers to lower the cost of premiums and give consumers greater freedom and choices in buying coverage. I will continue working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to achieve these goals."