Politics & Government

PA's U.S. House District 14 Candidate: Hans Lessmann

Lessmann is one of three candidates for a seat that covers Baldwin Township and Baldwin Borough.

Three people will run in an April 24 primary election for two spots on November's general ballot for the U.S. House of Representatives' 14th District of Pennsylvania, which includes and .

Incumbent Mike Doyle, from Forest Hills Borough, will face off against Janis Brooks, a North Versailles Township resident, in April's primary for the Democratic Party nomination.

Republican Hans Lessmann, of Forest Hills, is the only candidate from his party running for that seat, meaning that either Doyle or Brooks will almost certainly face Lessmann in November.

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Below are details from a Patch interview with Lessmann. Here is , and here is .

Short Biography:

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Lessmann holds degrees from Purdue University and the Pennsylvania College of Optometry. He has an optometry practice in and specializes in vision therapy for children and adults.

Lessmann is the president of The Society for The Education of Physicians & Patients. In support of one of his daughters, who has Down syndrome, his family is involved with several organizations that support and raise awareness of the disorder.

Lessman is married and has three children. His oldest daughter is in the U.S. Army and is serving in Afghanistan. He second daughter is involved with Milestone Centers in Monroeville. His son attends Pittsburgh Central Catholic High School.

Priority Issues:

Jobs

"My general platform is jobs, energy and tax reform," Lessmann said. "People first, growth today, solutions now."

Lessmann said that Pittsburgh has done well after the demise of the steel industry, but he thinks that the area has been in a slow decline, a sign of which is decreasing population in Allegheny County.

He is interested in providing business-friendly government policies that would bring businesses and jobs to the area.

"My big concern is that a lot of our well-educated youth have to leave town for jobs," Lessmann said. "It really devalues our area. It doesn't keep families together.

"Steelers fans are all over the country but not Seattle fans. That's because Seattle has a great economy, but Pittsburgh doesn't."

Lessmann said that Pittsburgh was a technology hub in the 1960s, when many people—including his father and grandfather—worked for Westinghouse. The city now has what he calls "quiet greatness," and he said that there are a number of fascinating new companies in Pittsburgh that deserve more attention.

Health Care

Lessmann thinks that major changes are needed in U.S. health care, but he knows that it could take many years to put into place a plan that he believes would work.

"The problem is that we actually have too much health care in our country, in many ways," he said. "It's not an efficient system we have now. People are getting care they don't need and consuming resources others may need."

The solution, he said, would be to create a system in which individuals would work directly with their doctors—not with insurance companies—to determine the type and frequency of care needed.

More of the payment would fall to individuals, but care would be more specific. And individuals would have more personal relationships with doctors. In this plan, Lessman said, health savings plans would be more widely used.

"Essentially, what I'm talking about is a medical IRA," Lessmann said. "You could carry a $1,000-to-$5,000 deductible, and you put money into an account. And it grows interest.

"Right now, if you're young, you don't use health care much, but the money grows so that, when you're 50 or 60, you have more. And that would become your deductible."

When asked how a young person in need of continuous medical care who might not be able to afford to contribute to such a savings plan would fare under his proposed system, Lessmann said that health insurance could still be available for those people and that emergency room treatment would still be available for all.

The key, Lessmann said, would be to eliminate third parties—whether they be employers, the government or large health care providers—that determine people's medical treatment for them.

Energy and Tax Reform

Taxes, including high energy costs, are a burden, especially to citizens who are in lower income brackets. There are things that can be done to lessen that burden that the United States isn't currently doing, Lessmann said.

Gas and oil drilling could be expanded and could be done in environmentally safe ways, he said. As a member of the Three Rivers Rowing Association and a lover of the outdoors, Lessmann said that he cares about the environment and wouldn't want to damage it.

He also said that he wants all U.S. states to use the same blend of gasoline, which would be cheaper to distribute and would help keep gas costs down.

Tax reform also is needed in order to boost the national economy and to take the tax burden off of citizens, he said. Lessmann is in favor of a fair tax system in which income tax is eliminated but brand new items are taxed at a higher rate. The advantage to that, he said, is that used items would not be taxed, so consumers could save money for new, needed goods—like groceries—by buying other goods used.

Lessmann said that that system could increase efficiency while reducing waste and spending. It would greatly benefit future generations, he said.

"I'm running for the next generation. (Young people) are the ones the politicians are planning to have pay for all their deals right now. They just want to get elected without thinking about the future, and we can't keep going on like that."

This article originally appeared on the .

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