Health is one of the most personal matters that face us as individuals and families, and the government should trust us to make our own informed decisions regarding the care we receive. We all desire to live a full and healthy life. This can only be achieved as the health care industry follows the economic trends that are normal in every other sector of economy---the race for lower prices and better quality.

We need to encourage autonomy on the part of the individual and family, promote the security and standardization of information sharing and advances in technology on the part of businesses, and focus on fiscal responsibility and increasing the transparency in the health sector on the part of the government. The government should concentrate on what it does best: generating reliable information the public can use to make informed, personal decisions, and helping to provide care for specific groups of people in our country who cannot do so for themselves.

In our affluent society, no one should be without adequate health care. We must ensure that our health care legislation focuses on target groups which do not have insurance and cannot acquire it without government aid. Providing health care to large numbers of Americans who are uninsured, and even adequate care for those who are, cannot be addressed by a national health care system. We need to find the balance between people doing what they can to take care of themselves and a system which facilitates that.

The Federal government is not the appropriate legislative body to deal with most health care concerns. It is a matter that should be left primarily to the States. However, we do need to address the way we share information-technological, personal, and commercial-in the health care industry. We should promote national standards for information sharing, such as electronic health records, which will improve quality and help lower the costs of providing health care.