Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) is a practicing family physician of 33 years. He is serving his freshman term in the House, first elected to Congress in late elections from the Bayou State in December of last year. Fleming currently practices medicine in Minden, La.
Last week, Fleming introduced House Resolution 615 which would oblige any member of Congress voting in favor of a government run health care bill to leave their private insurance plan and join the Democrats’ “public option” boondoggle.
Any member of Congress who votes against Obamacare wouldn’t be obliged to sign up for it but those who do, would. So far, Fleming told me, the entire Republican leadership has signed his Fleming pledge.
asked him how many Democrats have signed the pledge. “Despite reaching out to the Democrats, including the Speaker, we’ve had no Democrats sign up for it.”
“Americans know that there’s a disconnect between the American people and Congress,” Fleming continued. “Congress and Washington in general have become sort of a ruling elite. We have a bad habit of passing laws that subject the population to all sorts of problems and headaches, yet we exempt ourselves. So I think it’s time the American people hold Congress accountable. If Congress thinks that there should be a public plan, which would effectually lead to Canadian-style/United Kingdom-style socialized medicine, then they should be the first to sign up for it.”
Since he is intimately familiar with health insurance, and having recently signed up for his Congressional benefits, I asked Fleming talked about claims Democrat members were making from the House floor yesterday that their health care bill would offer the same plans that a member of Congress gets to choose from.
“That is absolutely incorrect,” Fleming said. “The public option plan is what people on Medicaid have today. Government funded, government run, government regulations, very restricted, one-size-fits-all. What we have in Congress today in the Federal Employees Benefits Plan is really an exchange. I can go on an internet site and I can choose from hundreds of private insurance plans. In fact, the private insurance plan that I’m on is Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Louisiana, which is no better, no less certainly, than any other good private plan, but it is a private insurance plan. It is not a government plan.”
Continues at Human Events
