Rep. Chip Roy On His Pre-existing Conditions Vote

WASHINGTON—Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) released the following statement Thursday afternoon regarding his votes:

Today, I voted to oppose two items at the same time. One was a bill offered by Democrats with a title suggesting it was doing something to protect "preexisting" conditions. In reality, the bill had literally nothing to do with preexisting conditions, and continues the Democrats cynical play to prop up their failed Obamacare experiment while literally millions of Americans suffer at the hands of increasing healthcare costs.

Offered as a "rebuttal" by Republicans as part of a procedural vote, the other bill was a proposed alternative that would codify the concept of several core elements of Obamacare in the name of solving the issue of pre-existing conditions, but would unfortunately continue to put upward pressure on costs. None of this would fundamentally fix the current system that in may cases causes people to fall into a preexisting condition category in the first place.

Due to the procedural nature of the vote, voting "Yes" or "No" would have prevented me from opposing both at the same time. The only way I could be a "No" on both was voting "Present." I will continue to oppose the government takeover of the healthcare choices that families and doctors should be making. I will continue to oppose government policies which directly cause healthcare costs to increase on the backs of hard working American families. Instead, I will fight for healthcare freedom and security for all Americans by getting government and insurance bureaucrats out of the way of you and your doctor.