GOP Rep. to Urge Democrats to Aim for Bipartisan Health Reform Bill

Rep. Charles Boustany, a former heart surgeon and current three-term lawmaker, will urge Democrats not to exclude Republicans in putting together a health care reform bill when Boustany gives the GOP response to President Obama's Wednesday night address to the joint session of Congress.

"This Congress can pass meaningful reform soon to reduce some of the fear and anxiety families are feeling in these very difficult times," Boustany said in prepared remarks. "Working together in a bipartisan way, we can truly lower the cost of health care while improving quality for the American people."

GOP leaders picked Boustany of Louisiana to give their response because he's a doctor who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, one of five congressional panels with jurisdiction over health care.

"He's worked this issue for a very long time," said House Minority Leader John Boehner. "He's also the person I asked to sit down with Democrats who were interested in having someone they could work with on our side of the aisle."

Boustany, who is expected to speak for five minutes, says Republicans want to lower insurance costs for individuals and small businesses without resorting to a so-called public option, or government-controlled insurance plan.

According to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Boustany has received $1.2 million from health and insurance interests since first being elected in 2004. That represents more than 20 percent of his fundraising.

A spokesman for Boustany attributed the contributions to his medical background.

"As his background in practicing medicine for 20 years, Congressman Boustany has gotten to know lots of doctors and nurses in the community," spokesman Rick Curtsinger said. "So bringing that background to Congress, people in those fields have appreciated what he's done. They believe in the work he's doing and contributed to his campaign.

Curtsinger did not respond to whether or not those contributions posed a conflict of interest to the lawmaker giving the official GOP response to the president's address.

One of the three Republicans who delivered the official responses to President Clinton's address to Congress on health care reform in 1993 says the biggest challenge is that the president has an hour to give his speech and the GOP has mere minutes.

"You can't believe how much thought you have to put into to boil down a big subject to two to three key points," said Nancy Johnson, who was a congresswoman when she delivered her speech after Clinton in 1993. "And one of those points always is the good things the other side is doing, the things you all agree on."

But after that, Johnson said, Boustany should pivot quickly to the points the two sides don't agree on.

It's not easy to follow a speech by the president, but Boustany says after working 20 years a heart surgeon in the operation room, he's used to pressure.

FOX News' Molly Henneberg and Chad Pergram contributed to this report.