BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- Following President Barack Obama's address to a joint session of Congress, Rep. Jim Costa released a statement regarding the speech.

“Valley residents needed to hear President Obama’s speech tonight to know exactly how he wants to reform our health care system. The decisions that we make here in Washington will impact Valley small business owners, farmers and families. Like the President, I believe we can all agree that the health care system is broken and needs repair. All Americans, even those with the best health insurance, can and do face untenable health costs as a result of an illness. For health reform legislation to be successful, at a minimum, four key elements must be addressed. These are catastrophic care, portability, pre-existing conditions and preventive measures. I am happy the President wants to end the practice of denying coverage for pre-existing conditions and will require insurance companies to cover preventative care.

“However, any health care bill that is passed must also improve our Valley’s health care services in rural areas, help develop a medical school at UC Merced, and attract and retain highly qualified general practitioners and specialized physicians. Secondly, the non-partisan Congressional budget analysts need to identify significant savings nationally and greater benefits for people in my district.

“I am not opposed to health care reform, but I am opposed to provisions in HR 3200. It is simply the wrong vehicle to reform the current system. One federal program that touches more of my constituents than any other program is Social Security. President Franklin Roosevelt’s idea started small, and over time was expanded to more and more Americans. Like Social Security, I also prefer a plan that is put into place in stages, rather than trying to implement such a massive effort all at once.”

Rep. Kevin McCarthy also released a statement following the speech.

“Over the month of August, I listened to local residents’ concerns regarding health care legislation being written in Washington. A vast majority of local residents told me that they oppose the current House bill being pushed through Congress by Speaker Pelosi that includes a government takeover of health care. After listening to their concerns in town halls and tele-town halls, I‘ve returned to Congress energized to fight for our shared values and beliefs, and urge Congress to start over and craft a bipartisan bill to fix our health care system.

“Unfortunately tonight, the President’s 28th speech on health care was more of the same and failed to take into account many of the concerns voiced this summer in our communities and throughout America. Americans agree we need to reform health care to control rising costs and increase access to health coverage - this was a missed opportunity by the President to reset the debate, start over, and work in a bipartisan manner to put in place common-sense reforms to fix our broken health care system. I believe these reforms should include ensuring that Americans with pre-existing conditions can get insurance, lowering health care costs through lawsuit abuse reform and allowing Americans to buy insurance across states lines. Along with real liability reform that could reduce over testing and defensive medicine, we should also consider solutions that will expand health care access to the uninsured, safeguard our families’ freedom to choose the health care they want, and provide a stronger focus on effective prevention, wellness, and disease management programs.

“We need to improve health care, but we don’t need another Washington “solution” that creates a new trillion dollar spending program paid for by new taxes and cuts in Medicare to replace and control the health care that Americans currently have. Congress as a whole should instead heed the call of the American people to fix the problems in our health care system through true bipartisan reform.”