Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Chingyu Wang
Talk Radio News Service

While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) thanked members of the American Hospital Association (AHA) during its their annual conference Tuesday for supporting the Democratic health care reform bill, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) reminded the audience that "you and I found ourselves on a different page."

The AHA, a national organization formed by almost 5,000 hospitals and medical care providers and 37,000 individual members, displayed packets during the conference that praised the new health care reform law for expanding health coverage to an estimated 32 million Americans in the next ten years.

Citing a new report by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Cornyn told members of the audience that health care costs will rise to $311 billion by the year 2020, and said his "biggest disappointment" with the law is that it will worsen America's long term fiscal situation.

Pelosi, on the other hand, said hospitals stand to benefit the most from the new law due to "32 million patients [having] an insurance card...fewer uncompensated emergency room visits...[and] reduced costs and improving care."

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who followed the Speaker, discussed the case of Well Point Inc. attempting to decline health coverage to breast cancer patients, and called on the AHA to help discourage such "illegal" behavior on the part of insurance companies.