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We need the ability to buy healthcare insurance across state lines that would increase competition and drive down cost.

We have a plan that creates universal access programs at the state level which allows folks to access insurance if they're denied by their insurer.

The single best thing we can do is expand competition. Let people purchase health insurance across state lines. If you want to expand access, what you want to do is increase choices and drive down cost.

Because you want to have competition to drive down the price. You want innovation. You have the ability to get people to agree that it's worth having a public plan. You could get private insurers to cover this population, but you couldn't without giving the population leverage in the marketplace.

I know how critical it is to make sure that people with pre-existing conditions have affordable insurance, and states are able to do that.

We need to level the playing field so that people who buy insurance individually at the same tax rates as those who buy it than get it through work. We need to be able to let people to shop across state lines for better deals with insurance that works for them and their family, not something the government says they have to have.

Small businesses are seeing huge rate increases every year, and more and more of them are saying they just can't afford to provide coverage. That's part of the reason more than 45 million Americans are now uninsured.

I understand that in these difficult economic times, the potential for any additional expense is not welcomed by American businesses. But in the long run, the health insurance reform law promises to cut health-care costs for U.S. businesses, not expand them.

Instead of forcing everyone to buy health insurance, Congress should pass a law protecting the uninsured from being charged more than the insurance companies are for a given service.