Congress Urged To Pass Health Care Reform On Behalf Of Consumers

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

The Consumers Union urged congress Wednesday to pass comprehensive health care reform this year in response to findings from a recent survey the Union conducted that revealed a high level of consumer dissatisfaction with the current health care model.

In a press conference on Capitol Hill, Senators Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) welcomed Consumers Union president Jim Guest to speak on what he described as an urgent need for health care reform.

Guest said the magazine Consumer Report’s, published by CU, recently did a consumer survey and found sobering inadequacies in the current health care system.

“Early this week consumer reports released a poll... nearly 73 percent of respondents said they worry that an illness or accident would be financial devastating to them, an equal number said they worry if they got sick they will be denied care or their care would be rationed by health insurance companies... those are devastating numbers,” Guest said. “51 percent in the last year said they didn’t go to the doctor, didn’t get a follow up treatment or procedure, didn’t fill a prescription they couldn’t take care of their own health because they couldn’t pay for it.”

Guest said CU is serious about health care reform because it is in the best interest of the American public.

CU, a historically nonpartisan organization, announced last week that it would run a TV ad in Washington, D.C. for two weeks that urged consumers to put pressure on Congress to pass health care reform this year. According to CU, this is something the organization has never done for any other cause since its founding in 1936.

Leveling the international trade playing field

A discussion on trade remedy laws was sponsored by the Women in International Trade (WIIT) Charitable Trust. Vivian C. Jones, specialist of international trade and finance at the Congressional Research Service, talked about the definitions, procedures and outcomes of antidumping and countervailing duty.

Antidumping cases involve claims that foreign producers are selling goods in the U.S. market at less than ‘normal value.’ Jones said that relief petitioners must prove that such imports are causing ‘material injury’ to the U.S. industry. According to Jones, the antidumping order imposes additional import duty to offset the amount of ‘dumping.’

Jones went on to discuss countervailing duty cases which involve claims that the manufacturers in a foreign country directly or indirectly receive a specific subsidy from a government-controlled entity and that the subsidized imports are causing material injury to the U.S. industry. To remedy this, Jones said that the countervailing duty order imposes additional import duty to offset the amount of subsidy. Jones emphasized that U.S. consumers are among the major stakeholders in the international trade arena.