“Everywhere you look, there’s more evidence that ObamaCare was fundamentally broken even before it started. And while our citizens bear the brunt of the law, it seems like big corporations and special interests have gotten exempted. Even Members of Congress are getting preferential treatment, yet everyday Virginians, of whom I am privileged to count myself, are paying the costs and experiencing diminished freedoms.

“President Obama’s ideas are deeply flawed and the implementation of this law has been a national embarrassment. Let me be plain, the law that carries the President’s name is the hallmark of a reckless federal government that has lost its way.

“As Attorney General of a Commonwealth which was one of our nation’s first 13 colonies, and the birthplace of American democracy, I’ll never stand by and watch as our hard fought freedoms are taken away.

“We can do better. We need to provide flexibility and choice within our health care system. Our citizens shouldn’t be forced to choose insurance providers and doctors who’ve been preselected by government bureaucrats. We need to open up the insurance market and allow cross state purchase of insurance to drive competition and lower premiums.

“Physicians are fleeing Medicaid because they’re paid so little and have to spend more time completing regulatory paperwork, time they would rather spend treating their patients. Our citizens should be able to choose the health care providers who they believe will provide the best care for their needs, and we shouldn’t have to make our healthcare decisions with 16,000 IRS agents looming as the ObamaCare enforcers.

“Most importantly, we need to reverse the perverse incentives that have raised the cost of insurance premiums and have forced employers to drop health care benefits and full-time jobs in order to stay in business.

“Our health care system should be transparent at all levels and provide pricing to inform and empower American families.

“We should support market based solutions for health care reform and empower patients free of government control.”