Halvorson supporting Democrat's health care legislation
By Jo Ann Hustis
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jhustis@morrisdailyherald.com
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Debbie Halvorson disclaims talk she doesn’t meet with constituents on issues like the pending historic health care insurance reform legislation.
“People are going to say anything they want,” the Crete Democrat noted Thursday of her critics.
“I’ve done more than anyone else in the district,” she said, citing 60 public forums at which she’s appeared in the 11th Congressional District since Jan. 14. “That’s going to happen whatever I do. I say, ‘You should have been there.’”
Halvorson intends to throw in her support Saturday, when the House votes on the Democrats' health insurance reform bill.
House Bill 3962 – the Affordable Health Care Choices Act of 2009 – is designed to provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans, and reduce growth in health care spending.
Halvorson said she did not support its forerunner – House Bill 3200, which critics said proposed $32 billion in new Medicare long-term care reductions, and devastated the profession's ability to care for the nation’s senior citizens.
She said the forerunner did not do enough for her constituents.
“Moderate Democrats like myself stood together – we knew HB 3200 wouldn’t work. We’re making sure affordable health care is affordable and available for small businesses, for one,” she said of the current measure.
The heart of HB 3962 is the insurance exchange. Halvorson called this the marketplace where any private insurer will be able to compete with anyone else across the country.
“It will be a one-stop shop where people can understand and compare plans. This bill will have competition, which will provide more choices,” she added.
“If you like the health care insurance you have, or your employer’s health insurance is good, keep it. The point of the bill is to offer more choices in health care to people. When everyone has health insurance, we won’t have so much cost shifting.”
Halvorson praised Thursday’s endorsements of HB 3962 by the American Association of Retired Persons, the nation’s largest organization of senior citizens, and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees.
Also, other organizations and groups such as Consumers Union, an independent, non-profit testing and information organization, which has not supported anything regarding government in 70 years, Halvorson noted.
HB 3962 will immediately close the “doughnut hole” in Medicare Part D prescription coverage for senior citizens. The doughnut hole is the coverage gap, or ceiling at $2,300, after which seniors are entirely responsible for the cost of their prescriptions, until they reach another designated level of expense.
“We won’t even have to wait for the health care bill to take effect in 2013,” she said of the doughnut hole coverage slated to take effect Jan. 1 of next year.
“The bill also eliminates co-pays and cost sharing for seniors on Medicare. Too, they will be able to get preventative care, like checkups and such, starting Jan. 1.”
Halvorson said HB 3962 is historic, and needs to become law.
“We’re trying to change the culture of our society,” she said. “We’ll lower health care costs everywhere by being preventive.”
Halvorson said the bill’s sponsors estimate the legislation will reduce the national deficit by $30 billion over the next 10 years.
“It’s deficit neutral,” she said. “We found every penny to cover it. We’re trying to fix what the Republicans started.”
“The bill will cost $894 billion, under the amount the president requested. We have found every penny to cover that, unlike five years ago, when the Republicans passed Medicare Part D, estimated to cost almost $600 billion and they never found one dime to cover that.”
Halvorson said the health care legislation is probably the most transparent, most debated bill Congress has ever had. About 130 caucuses and meetings were held in Washington, D.C., on the issue. She herself held 60 events in the 11th District and talked to hundreds of people, Halvorson said.
To her critics who said she ducked face-to-face town meetings on the health care issue, conducting teleconferences instead in which she commented on questions phoned in by constituents from their homes and offices, Halvorson said she talked to as many people as wanted to meet her.
“I held office hours, and Congress on the Corner, and we stayed as long as people wanted to come. I don’t remember the exact amount, but people knew about these, and if they wanted to come and see me, they did,” she said.
“Nobody needed an appointment, nobody had to call ahead of time, nobody was screened, they just showed up. It was wonderful, and I heard a lot. We had people who worked, and those who were retired, and we talked about everything.
“That’s how it was throughout the district, whether it was my community office hours, or my Congress on the Corners, or my other 60 events that I held, and my round tables.”
Halvorson said she was excited to read many of the 15,000 letters she received from the public during this time, and noted more than 20,000 people were in on the telephone town hall meetings.
“They were appreciative I’m trying to bring government to the people,” she said. “We have wonderful technology, so I’m bringing government truly back to the people.”
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