Health care bill passes without Peterson's support

By Jeff Hage (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Sunday, November 8, 2009

The Democratic-controlled House narrowly passed landmark health care reform legislation Saturday, but it did so without the support of Colin Peterson, Otter Tail County’s congressman in the House of Representatives.

Peterson, who represents Minnesota’s 7th Congressional District and resides in Detroit Lakes, was one of 39 Democrats who voted against the bill, which passed in the House on a 220-215 vote. The U.S. Senate now Debate the bill. President Barack Obama said Saturday in a prepared statement to media, “I look forward to signing it into law by the end of the year.”

The House health care bill passed Saturday would:

- Require most Americans to purchase health insurance or pay a fine.

- Expand health care coverage to 36 million more people over the next decade.

- Require employers with payrolls above $500,000 to provide insurance to their employees or pay a fine.

- Prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage because of pre-existing medical conditions.

- End premium disparities between men and women.

- Impose a 5.4 percent income tax surcharge on income above $500,000 annually for individuals and above $1 million annually for households.

- Establish a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers beginning in 2013.

- Cost $1.2 trillion over 10 years.

- Cut Medicare spending by more than $400 billion over 10 years.

In voting against the measure, Peterson questioned whether the health care bill went far enough in strengthening health care in Minnesota and preserving the state’s reputation for high quality, affordable care.

“In my view, the bill that passed the House of Representatives on Saturday fell well short of those objectives and so I voted against it,” Peterson said in a prepared statement.

Peterson said the bill passed in the House attempts to tackle the right health care issues and is a step in the right direction.

“But we’re not there yet,” he said.

Peterson said he’s hopeful that as the process goes forward and the Senate does its work a bill will emerge that Democrats and Republicans will be willing to vote for.

“Although the bill was full of good intentions, our current system is fiscally unsustainable and this bill won’t change that. Medicare’s current unfunded liabilities are some $37 trillion, and Medicaid is close behind at around $35 trillion. This is money we don’t have, money we’ll have to borrow from foreign countries or raise here at home through tax increases. We have to tackle this problem and fix the underlying structural problems in both Medicare and Medicaid,” he said.

The House bill also commits the government to provide billions in subsidies to help people buy insurance in the marketplace, Peterson said.

Subsidies only shift the cost of care from individuals to government and doing this leaves us promising to spend more money that we don’t have, he.

“Adding it all up, I don’t think our country can afford to add another trillion-plus dollar health care delivery plan,” Peterson said.

Shortly before beginning its vote on a Democratic plan, the House voted 258-176 against a GOP version that would have lowered costs for people with insurance but done little or nothing to expand coverage to those without any. Outnumbered Republicans knew the chamber would reject their measure, but advanced it to present their vision of how the health system should be reshaped.

“I also voted against the bill House Republicans offered because it was a flawed bill. It did nothing to control costs and offered nothing to expand coverage,” Peterson said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi likened the legislation to the passage of the government's Social Security pension program in 1935 and Medicare health insurance for the elderly 30 years later.

From the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid issued a statement saying, "We realize the strong will for reform that exists, and we are energized that we stand closer than ever to reforming our broken health insurance system."

Senate Democrats will need 60 out of 100 votes to end debate and bring legislation to a final vote.

If the Senate does pass a bill, it would have to be reconciled with the House version by a panel of lawmakers from both chambers before the legislation is put up for final approval.

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