As bill passes, health care debate intensifies
About 50 protestors picketed outside Congressman Kurt Schrader's office
matthew graham / oregon city news
Protestors stand outside of Congressman Kurt Scharder's Oregon City office to protest health care reform last week.
About 50 people gathered outside of U.S. Congressman Kurt Schrader’s office in Oregon City last Thursday to oppose health care reforms that were subsequently passed by Congress on Saturday.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Affordable Health Care Reform Act by a vote of 220 to 215; Oregon Representatives Schrader, Earl Blumenauer, Peter DeFazio and David Wu voted in favor of the Bill. The Bill still must pass the Senate before President Barrack Obama can sign it into law.
The attendees of last week’s protest, many from the Clackamas chapter of Americans for Prosperity, generally said the current proposals are too far-reaching and don’t address simpler means of improving the health care system.
J.R. Hill, of Oregon City, said he understands the need to cover the uninsured, but he said the country is in a “crisis” with $12 trillion in debt and is concerned the reform proposed would add to that.
“I understand the need, but we just can’t afford government health care right now,” he said. While the Congressional Budget Office estimates it would cost $850 billion to implement the new plan, Democrats, Schrader said the bill passed by Congress would actually reduce the deficit in the long term.
“Without dealing with healthcare our deficit and our debt gets worse, that’s very clear,” he said. “It’s growing as a faster and faster part of our (Gross Domestic Product) and our national expenditures. Second, the house bill actually reduces our debt in the long run.
The new expenditures coupled with savings through increased efficiencies “balance to save us $104 billion over the next 10 years,” Schrader said. “The savings are largely a result of efficiencies in Medicare and Medicaid … that’s where we get our $426 billion worth of savings and it’s not by cutting benefits. We change how we provide services to prevent Medicare from going bankrupt.”
Many of last week’s protestors also said are less-intrusive things that could be implemented, like tort reform to limit malpractice claims and therefore lower insurance rates, and allowing insurance to compete across state lines, increasing competition and improving insurance in general.
“I thin that’s false,” Schrader said. “It takes a lot of things to bend the cost curve and encourage competition. The House bill has the cross state (insurance competition) covered, there’s the beginning of tort reform as a result of the August’s hearings – certificate of merit types of guidelines so we avoid frivolous lawsuits.
“The most important piece that swings me to a yes is that we actually change the whole reimbursement of health care to paying for a quality outcome so you don’t have to be in the hospital too often. It’s a hue huge cost savings.”
At Thursday’s protest Bruce Long, of Wilsonville, carried a sign with the letters USSA – a play on the Soviet Union’s USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) abbreviation. He said he’s concerned about the “overreaching socialism” of Obama’s administration, citing the proposed public health insurance option and the takeover of companies like General Motors.
“Even worse than socialism, I see it as selective redistribution of wealth,” he said. “I’m extremely frugal, I live in an apartment, and they’re taking money away from me for first-time homebuyers – you don’t have a right to a house.”
But Schrader said that the Congressional Budget Office estimates 60 percent of people will still be on private insurance plans even after the public option is implemented, leaving the rhetoric about socialism hollow.
“I guess my question was, ‘do you consider social security socialism? Do you consider veterans’ benefits socialism? Do you consider Medicare socialism,” he said. He doesn’t, he said, and considers healthcare among those services people shouldn’t be without.