Senate Democrats Put Family Focus On Health Care

By Courtney Ann Jackson - Talk Radio News Service

The health care debate has taken on many angles, but today the focus of Democratic leaders in the Senate was on uninsured families. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-N.V.) welcomed two families directly affected by health care issues to a press conference Thursday to represent the many families being affected everyday.

“Our opponents aren’t talking about the real families and the real problems these families have,” said Reid. “Reforming health care is not abstract because health care is not theoretical...It’s about people, real people.”

Reid was joined by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill), Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.). The Senators noted that the families in attendance know the real costs of health care due to personal experiences. Reid repeated the phrase, “we’re talking about people,” multiple times in his opening statement.

Murray said she's asked constituents in her home state to share their personal stories about health care and why they feel health care reform is needed. So far, she said she's received over 5,000 e-mails in two weeks.

Murray highlighted the need to control the costs for family health insurance, noting that people with quality health insurance are paying more in premiums because the system as a whole does not cover everyone.

“Overcome the obstacles and get something done. We have to get something done,” said Schumer. “The system just isn’t working or it’s getting to the point that it won’t work in the next decade.”

Durbin said stories about ordinary Americans losing health insurance are not uncommon because 14,000 people lose health care everyday. He said that if nothing is done now, the problem won’t just go away, and that’s why health reform must happen this year.

The Senators said they will give the legislation more time so that Republicans who oppose the plan can review what Reid described as a “complex difficult issue." They said they would continue to work on the bill when they return from recess in the fall.

“I’ve had conversations with them [Republicans] and I’ll have future conversations to give them assurances that we’ll take everything they do and we’ll do what we can to make sure their issues aren’t buried,” said Reid.

Reid expressed confidence that all 60 Democrats in the Senate are prepared to vote for the legislation.

GOP Senators: Let’s Start Over On Health Care

By Courtney Ann Jackson- Talk Radio News Service

Republican Senators reiterated Wednesday their desire to let the public to see the health care bill before Congress considers passing it, adding that if a bipartisan bill couldn’t be created that included the key elements of their proposals such as cutting costs and coverage for everyone, they should just start over.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) argued that attempting to pass a health care bill before the August recess creates a “false deadline.”

“My recommendation to the President is to back off on that [deadline]. He’s going to find plenty of us to work with on a common sense proposal,” said Coburn. “Back off...and take us at our word that we truly want to work to solve this problem and I think that’s reflective of the vast majority of our conference.”

Coburn was joined by Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) to discuss the Republican health care agenda. Both Coburn and Barrasso are the Senate’s only two doctors.

Barrasso said physicians know we need health care reform. He also noted that we must get the costs under control and improve patient care.

“We’re here as two doctors to say we want to make this system better for all Americans,” said Barraso.

Coburn highlighted the need for Republicans to continue working and not slow down or lose focus as they continually push for their proposals to be seriously considered.

Financial Leaders Applaud Administration's Regulatory Reform Efforts

By Courtney Ann Jackson-Talk Radio News Service

Financial industry leaders were in agreement Friday that the Obama administration’s proposed financial regulatory reform is necessary, noting that the reform will renovate and strengthen the financial marketplace and many of its regulations. During a Committee on Financial Services hearing Friday, many of the panelists applauded the administration’s proposal.

“We fully support the Administration’s five key principles for strengthening consumer protection-transparency, simplicity, fairness, accountability, and access-and we are pleased to see the Chairman carry these principles forward as he works to fill the regulatory gaps to protect consumers,” said Diahann Lassus on behalf of the Financial Planning Coalition.

Other panelists highlighted the administration’s “diagnosis of the deficiencies” of the current financial framework. They said it is outdated and some aspects have led to confusion and inefficiencies for years now.

Regulations received much attention with panelist Robert Nicholas, President and COO of Financial Services Forum, saying the framework as it currently stands, “undermines regulators’ ability to ensure institutional and systemic safety and soundness-helping to create the opportunity for, and exacerbating, the current financial crisis.”

Committee member Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) noted a survey by ShareOwners.org that sites 58 percent of investors are now "less confident in the fairness of the financial markets" than they were one year ago. He noted that a major reason for the lack of confidence is due to the failure of regulators.

"We must enact strong new laws," said Kanjorski.

GOP Senators Say Dems Ignoring Republican Health Care Ideas

By Courtney Ann Jackson-Talk Radio News Service

Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) said Wednesday that Republicans want the nation's healthcare system revamped this year, and they’re proposing several ideas as to how to achieve this goal. The proposals all address what Alexander called the two biggest problems with the Democrats' plan; Too much debt, and a “Washington take-over.”

“The Republican caucus has a whole handful of lollipops [ideas about healthcare reform] and we keep offering them to the Democrats saying, you know, here’s the red one, here’s the blue one, here’s the green one,” said Alexander. “Why don’t you [the Democrats] take one and let’s go to work on it?”

Alexander noted that there are many alternative bills that have much in common but Democrats must take more Republican proposals into consideration in order to create a bipartisan bill. The Senators mentioned that despite the absence of formal agreements, they are in agreement with the President and the Democrats on many points within the debate. Specifically, the Republicans said they support preventing the loss of healthcare insurance for American people, not allowing for massive amounts of debt to run up and allowing Americans to keep their existing healthcare coverage if they are satisfied with it.

Gregg said he does not think the healthcare bill will be passed in the Senate before the August recess. When asked for his reasoning, he said Finance won’t complete its mark-up in time. He also said the health bill is being rewritten on a weekly basis, but the one consistency is that it is “extremely expensive and it’s not paid for.”

In terms of Medicaid expansion, Alexander said, “the debt is running up in Washington. So to lower that debt a little bit, they’re shifting it onto other people and the new version shifts it on first to employers across the country who are struggling to create new jobs, and second it shifts it in a big way to states through the Medicaid program.”

He highlighted the idea of “dumping low-income people into the Medicaid program” and pointed out that it is going to cost the states “huge amounts of money” in new tax increases.

The Senators said that above all else, Republicans want healthcare plans that average Americans can afford.

Massachusetts’ Health Care Reforms Could Provide Lessons On The National Level

By Courtney Ann Jackson- Talk Radio News Service

Policy analysts are taking their cue from Massachusetts’ 2006 health care reforms. Fellows from the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation discussed the results of Massachusetts’ reforms Monday, contrasting the state's health care system with the possibility of health care reform on the national scale. All said there are lessons to be learned from the state of Massachusetts and certain problems that cannot be ignored.

Michael Tanner, senior fellow of the Cato Institute said, “Massachusetts’ biggest mistake was that they made universal coverage the loadstone of their reforms. That the whole idea of whether or not this was to be a successful reform was did they get a piece of paper into everybody’s hands that said they had health insurance. They neglected the all important issue of cost containment.”

Turner said Massachusetts could have pursued more consumer involvement and deregulated their health care system. Instead, he said they chose to go with a system that imposed government controls on the individuals, the insurers, and the providers.

Turner believes these are all issues the federal government should take into consideration and learn from Massachusetts’ mistakes.

Greg Scandlen, president and CEO at Consumers for Healthcare Choices asked, “If we reform all [U.S.] health care assistance the way Massachusetts was done, what’s going to happen with all these newly insured people coming in to see a doctor?”

Scandlen brought up the issue of accommodating such a large number of insured people. He said the rate of people going to the emergency room could rise if doctors have a difficult time providing for such large additions of insured patients.