Congressman Tom Price (R-GA) issued the following statement in response to the address on health care reform given tonight by President Barack Obama before a Joint Session of Congress.

“For all of the President’s talk about changing the status quo, he did very little of that this evening,” said Congressman Price. “Tonight’s speech was a reiteration of the same ideas to which the American people have already registered their disapproval. Americans believe medical decisions should rest in the hands of patients, not bureaucrats. Yet the President’s plan remains a hodgepodge of misguided ideas that will transfer power to Washington. There was one element, however, that continues to be missing from the President’s efforts: real leadership. The very fact that this address was deemed necessary by the White House illustrates the President’s failure to lead the effort for health care reform in a direction supported by the American people. He has fundamentally misread the health care principles that Americans value.

“Rather than a government takeover of health care, the President should lead with patient-centered solutions. The only real game-changer tonight would have been for the President to say he’s ready to start over and embrace bipartisan solutions. Instead, he continues to present the country with a false choice between either increasing government interference or maintaining the status quo. Americans reject both notions in favor of reforms that empower patients. If President Obama can’t acknowledge that simple truth, he’ll continue to lose the trust of the American people. After talking at Republicans tonight, we can only hope that the President will now talk with Republicans about our patient-centered ideas for positive health care reform.”

NOTE: The Republican Study Committee has introduced H.R. 3400, the Empowering Patients First Act. H.R. 3400 would: 1) make access to coverage affordable for all Americans; 2) make coverage truly owned and controlled by the patient; 3) improve the health care delivery structure; and 4) rein in out-of-control costs, including robust liability reform.