U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., today urged President Obama to start over with his health reform campaign and try to build a more bipartisan effort that will win more public support.
“Unless President Obama hits the restart button on health care reform and begins with incremental, bipartisan change, then he won’t win over the American people,” Rep. Wamp said prior to President Obama’s speech tonight to a joint session of Congress. “Rather than a radical government takeover of health care, we need incremental changes to expand coverage to more families and reduce the cost of care for everyone.”
The president’s speech starts at 8 p.m.
Rep. Wamp, a Chattanooga Republican who is running for governor in Tennessee, said the public is fearful of more government involvement in the delivery of health care. He urged that health insurers be regulated by the federal government on a national basis, rather than the current state insurance regulatory system, which foster more nationwide competition among private health plans.
But he said the American people don’t want a public health insurance option to compete with private insurers.
“It should be obvious now to the president that the American people don’t trust Washington on big issues, especially health care,” he said.
Another Tennessee Republican, U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, also criticized Obama’s health care plan in advance of tonight’s speech. She said Tennesseans want health care changes to lower costs and improve quality.
“What they don't want is to replace a health insurance bureaucrat with a government bureaucrat,” she said.
For complete details, see tomorrow’s Times Free Press
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Federal Government Health care is not a right and is not constitutional, the Republican Congress in 2003 that decided to subsidize private health insurers under Medicaid Advantage, which costs taxpayers an average of 13 percent more per beneficiary than the government-run program. The same Republican Congress passed the prescription drug benefit add-on to Medicare that President George W. Bush so enthusiastically championed, creating the largest expansion of the welfare state since LBJ’s “Great Society.”
And now the Republicans have announced from the Republican National Committee, a brand new “Health Care Bill of Rights for Seniors.”
Will it ever end.
Prescription Drug Benefit.
The final version (conference report) of H.R. 1 would create a prescription drug benefit for Medicare recipients. Beginning in 2006, prescription coverage would be available to seniors through private insurers for a monthly premium estimated at $35. There would be a $250 annual deductible, then 75 percent of drug costs up to $2,250 would be reimbursed. Drug costs greater than $2,250 would not be covered until out-ofpocket expenses exceeded $3,600, after which 95 percent of drug costs would be reimbursed. Low-income recipients would receive more subsidies than other seniors by paying lower premiums, having smaller deductibles, and making lower co-payments for each prescription. The total cost of the new prescription drug benefit would be limited to the $400 billion that Congress had budgeted earlier this year for the first 10 years of this new entitlement program. The House adopted the conference report on H.R. 1 on November 22, 2003 by a vote of 220 to 215 (Roll Call 669).
Marsha Blackburn Voted FOR this bill.
108-2 (Source: The New American, December 29, 2003)
Marsha Blackburn is my Congressman.
See her unconstitutional votes at :
http://bluecollarrepublican.com/blog/?p=...
Mickey