CL – Gene Taylor and Travis Childers help stall health care
Members of the Blue Dog Coalition say the House bill:
Wouldn’t reduce the growth in health-care costs.
Would punish small-business owners by raising taxes on families making more than $350,000 per year as a way to pay for health-care reform.
Would not insure all of the approximately 46 million people without health insurance. The bill would leave about 9 million people uninsured, the Congressional Budget office estimates.
Taylor said he wouldn’t vote for the House health-care bill as written because it doesn’t go far enough to address issues such as the possibility that Medicare will run out of funds sooner than predicted.
He said the bill should change Medicare to allow the federal government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies over drug prices, provide more incentives for seniors to rely on cheaper generic drugs and create more competition for health insurance companies. “None of them is really going after trying to contain cost,” Taylor said of the House bill and a similar one in the Senate.
Childers, D-Booneville, said he’s still waiting to see a final version of the bill.
“No matter how the congressman votes, he’s going to do what’s best for north Mississippi and not based on party affiliation,” said Dana Edelstein, a spokeswoman for Childers, who represents the 1st District.
Meanwhile, Republican leaders are targeting Blue Dogs and freshman Democrats in hopes of lining up more opposition.
Clarion-Ledger
7/24/9
Magnolia Tribune
