According to The Hill, Jane Harman is the lone Blue Dog on the Energy and Commerce Committee who supports the House Democrats' health care bill.The committee's other seven Blue Dogs -- fiscally conservative Democrats who tend to represent swing districts -- are holding out for amendments. Their objections are that the bill won't do enough to reduce costs and that it is based on Medicare funding formulas that they say harm rural districts.
The Blue Dogs have also been skeptical about the "public option" provision in the past, but they seem not to be emphasizing that concern at the moment. Harman made a statement yesterday as the committee opened debate on the bill:
Neither a single-payer system nor an all-private market approach can achieve the results that competition among a robust public option and market-based plans will. We know what happens when insurance companies don't compete: The results range from complacency to price gouging. A public option will help fix this, harnessing the power of the market to drive down premiums, encourage efficiency and quality, and keep bloated treatment regimens in check. By one estimate, it could save the country $800 billion over the next decade.Harman has been a Blue Dog since the early 90s, when she represented a much more conservative district. Her district has since been redrawn and is now more liberal -- to such an extent that she seems more worried about challenges from the left than from the right. No surprise, then, that she's broken with the Blue Dogs on health care and on energy.
Her full statement is after the jump.
As the daughter and sister of medical doctors, I've seen firsthand the importance and the challenges of providing quality medical care. My father treated three generations of patients in a middle-class neighborhood of Los Angeles. He believed, as I do, that everyone should have access to good healthcare. To me this is a core American value, vital to economic competitiveness, and urgently needed.
A good healthcare bill will provide universal coverage, foster competition, encourage innovation, and preserve patients' choice. I strongly believe that a robust public health insurance option is essential to achieving these goals. Neither a single-payer system nor an all-private market approach can achieve the results that competition among a robust public option and market-based plans will.
We know what happens when insurance companies don't compete: The results range from complacency to price gouging. A public option will help fix this, harnessing the power of the market to drive down premiums, encourage efficiency and quality, and keep bloated treatment regimens in check. By one estimate, it could save the country $800 billion over the next decade.
Clearly, insurers are not solely responsible for the current predicament. Providers, hospitals, and drug companies must shoulder some responsibility. A healthcare bill should motivate them to become more competitive and efficient. My father made house calls. Those days may be gone, but innovation can harness American ingenuity to achieve the quality of care and level of excellence this country's healthcare system was once famous for.
Let me highlight several additions, which could have a significant impact:
· First, drug prices must be lower. The provision in Medicare Part D which forbids the government from negotiating lower prices is a travesty. And we need to revisit reimportation.
· Second, we should bolster surge capacity in emergency medical systems by creating a fast track for military medics to become EMTs. With their recent experience administering trauma care in Afghanistan and Iraq, these veterans are ideally suited to respond to large-scale medical emergencies. I will be offering an amendment to do this.
· Third, we must protect DSH funds for safety net hospitals serving indigent patients, something I know is critically important to Chairman Waxman. This is a lifeline for big city hospitals--particularly those with trauma centers--that bear an unequal burden.
· Fourth, we should consider raising the exemption threshold for small businesses--the primary economic drivers in our communities and the key to overcoming our present staggering unemployment rates.
Every member of this Committee knows our health system is broken. This bill charts a responsible course to fix it, and I commend Chairmen Waxman, Pallone and key staff. Now is the time to demonstrate bipartisanship and courage--to honor our Chairman Emeritus whose name is on the bill and live up to the legacy of this great Committee.
I'm very disappointed to hear that Jane Harman is supporting the Health Care Reform Bill. I really thought she had more common sense than to go against what the CBO is saying. Obviously Jane Harman isn't listening to "WE THE CITIZENS" of this country. Maybe if she votes this Bill she will face the wrath of "WE THE CITIZENS" and be voted out of office.
Jane Harman is to wealthy to bother with the mundane issues. 'let them eat cake'.
THIS IS IT!
The healthcare reform bill released by the House Of Representatives is an excellent bill as I understand it. It's a bill with a strong, robust, government-run public option, and an intelligent, reasonable initial funding plan to cover almost all of the American people. It is carefully written, and thoughtfully constructed, informed, prudent and wise. This bill will save trillions of dollars, and millions of your lives. It is also now supported by the AMA.
This is the type of bill that all Americans can feel good about. And this is the type of bill that has the potential to dramatically improve the quality of healthcare for all Americans. Rich, middle class and poor a like. Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and all other party affiliations. This bill has the potential to dramatically improve the quality of life of every American.
The house healthcare bill should be viewed as the minimum GOLD STANDARD by which all other proposed healthcare legislation should be judged. All supporters of true high quality healthcare reform should now place all your support behind this healthcare reform bill released by the United States House Of Representatives, as the minimum Gold standard for healthcare reform in America.
You should all now support this bill with all your might, and all of your unrelenting tenacity. This healthcare bill is a VERY, VERY GOOD! bill for all of the American people. Fight tooth, and nail for every bit of this bill if you have too. Be aggressive, creative, and relentless for this bill.
From this time forward, go BIGGER and DEEPER with the American people every day until passage of healthcare reform with a robust, government-run public option.
FIGHT!! like your life and the lives of your loved ones depends on it. BECAUSE IT DOES!
It should also be noted that Ron Wyden's "Free Choice Proposal" in the senate is a highly intriguing proposal and possibly a brilliant idea. And an Idea that should be strongly looked into as a way of increasing consumer choice, and consumer access to a government-run public option.
SPREAD THE WORD
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSM8t_cLZgk&feature=player_embedded)
God Bless You
Jack Smith — Working Class
I'd like to thank the purveyor of DNC talking points. I haven't laughed that much since I watched The Hangover.
Support the Waxman health care bill. Millions of illegal aliens are depending on you.