Last week, I saw a piece on Ezra Klein's blog about how awesome Mark Warner is and how he proposed a set of amendments controlling extensive cost controls. I emailed him to say how much I liked them.
Then on Saturday, I saw a commercial about how Jim Webb "stood tall with John McCain on his amendment to remove the cuts to Medicare from the legislation." We REALLY, REALLY, need to cut Medicare. There is one program, Medicare advantage, which allows Seniors to use Government dollars to purchase private health plans. I think it was one of dubya's free market ideas. Guess what costs more and gets worse results than regular Medicare? Medicare Advantage. The current legislation would cut it. The insurance companies hate that. They love to sell the government insurance plans that are less effective than what the government does on it's own. That's a good thing. It doesn't work. And that's what we want, right? Government that works for less money? Sounds good to me. So I wrote Jim Webb and told him that I thought that he was a fucking idiot for voting for John McCain (side note: When he was running for President, anyone remember what John McCain wanted to do with Health Care?? Oh yeah. Try to save money by cutting waste, fraud, and abuse out of Medicare. I'm glad he is consistent).
Today, they both emailed me back. My brain is fried from exams, but if anyone wants to read them and tell me what they say, that would be awesome. I read enough to see that they are form letters that talk about how important it is to reform health care, but we really need to do it the right way so that America doesn't go bankrupt. Thank you, Senator, for not wanting our country to fail. That's important to know.
So here is Jim Webb, the Senior Senator from Virginia
Mr. Lahaye, Mike
Dear Mr. Lahaye:
Knowing of your interest in the ongoing debate in Congress over health care reform, I wanted to update you on a number of votes and positions that I have taken during the process.
Together with 60 of my colleagues, I voted in favor of proceeding to debate the proposed health care reform legislation. I have yet to decide whether I will support final passage of the bill.
I have stated on several occasions my concerns that the Obama administration should have begun the health care process with a clear, detailed proposal, from which legislation could then be put into place. Instead, the legislation now before the Congress is the product of five separate congressional committees, three in the House and two in the Senate. I and my staff have carefully worked through thousands of pages of sometimes contradictory information, and have done our best to bring focus to the debate and clarity to any final product.
Our country needs health care reform. While a strong percentage of Americans are satisfied with their health care, the system is not working for millions of others. Spiraling costs for health care also have placed our biggest industries at a severe competitive disadvantage worldwide, and have become unsustainable for many small businesses.
But true reform must be done in an effective and responsible fashion, without creating a cumbersome, overly-bureaucratic system. The bottom line should be to achieve a more cost-effective health care system that increases accessibility, affordability, and quality of care, and which does not burden our economy along the way.
The process also requires openness, so that the American people understand exactly what is being debated. At the start of this debate I was one of eight Senators who called on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to post the text and complete budget scores of the health care bill on a public website for review at least 72 hours prior to both the first vote and final passage. This request was agreed to, affording proper transparency in the process.
Over the past few weeks, I have taken a number of difficult votes. As with every other issue since I came to the Senate I have voted my conscience throughout this process. I have broken with my party six times, including four votes to send the current legislation back to committee for a more thorough review. I voted five times against proposed cuts to Medicare due to my concerns about taking half a trillion dollars out of that system at a time when the pool for Medicare is about to expand with the retirement of those in the Baby Boom generation. I am a long-time supporter of Medicare Advantage programs which have, in my view, improved services in rural areas of Virginia, and I did not want to see cuts to benefits or services.
On the issue of abortion, I studied the bill closely to ensure that no taxpayer dollars will be used to fund abortions. I am convinced that this legislation strictly adheres to the requirements of the Hyde Amendment. It also includes clear conscience provisions for providers and consumers who elect to reject a plan that offers such coverage.
Since drug prices in the U.S. have risen dramatically in recent years�a 9% jump in 2009 alone�I have cosponsored an amendment to lower prescription drug costs. The measure would allow Americans to safely import lower-priced, Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs from other approved countries, and save the federal government nearly $20 billion over the next ten years.
In summary, I have been working actively to improve the health care reform bill for the good of our country and without bowing to party politics. As we continue to debate the bill and amend it, I remain hopeful that the Senate can reach consensus on fair and effective health care legislation. Whether this is so will determine my vote on final passage.
As the Senate continues to debate health care reform, please be assured that your views will be very helpful to me and my staff. I hope that you will continue to share your thoughts with us in the years ahead.
Thank you again for your interest in this important matter.
Sincerely,
Jim Webb
United States Senator
JW: KW
And here is Mark Warner, the much more impressive Junior Senator from Virginia:
Dear Mr. LaHaye,
Thank you for contacting me about reforming our nation's health care system. I appreciate hearing from you on such an important issue. Over the past few months, I have traveled around Virginia to hear from people all over the Commonwealth on the issue of health care. Since June, my office has been contacted over 200,000 times by constituents on both sides of the debate. Hearing from constituents is a vital part of my job as a United States Senator and I hope you will continue to share your opinions with me as the health care debate takes shape.
A fundamental principle that must guide us through this debate is the fact that our current health care system is financially unsustainable. While many are concerned about our federal deficit, most do not realize that the primary cause of our deficit is the increasing per-person costs of Medicare and Medicaid; by 2017, Medicare will be insolvent. Additionally, American business is weakened by the current costs of health care. Per capita health care costs in the United States are double that of virtually every other developed nation in the world, leaving American business at a disadvantage and unable to compete in a global economy. American families also suffer from the rising costs of health care: within the next decade, premiums will consume 40 percent of an average American family's income. To do nothing about the current state of our health care system would mean exploding our national debt, hobbling American business and crippling family budgets.
Although I do not support a government-run single-payer health care system, I believe we need comprehensive reform to achieve a competitive, cost-effective, and efficient system. This effort should be primarily focused on ensuring that all Americans can get adequate health coverage, and the coverage must be cost-effective and based upon data-driven medical standards. We must ensure that competition remains among health care providers because it is precisely that competition that drives innovation and cost reduction in the industry.
The health care reform debate in the Senate is now in full swing and I continue to work with my fellow Senators to make improvements to the bill. Recently I joined 12 of my freshmen colleagues to introduce a package of amendments that would broaden efforts to encourage innovation and lower costs for consumers across the health care system.
While the health care bill now being considered in the Senate makes great strides to begin fixing a fundamentally broken system, our amendments take these improvements one step further. Our proposal strengthens the current bill in three significant ways: it establishes public-private arrangements to better synchronize changes across medicine, with an eye towards preventing cost-shifting to others; it eliminates red tape and fraud, which drives up costs; and it compels Medicare to become a leader in overall health reform by speeding the move toward a higher-value, lower-cost model for the future. Attached is a more detailed summary of the package.
I have also been contacted by some Virginians about the vote last week on Amendment 2962. This amendment would have prohibited any health plan participating in the insurance exchange that covers an individual who receives a federal subsidy from covering abortion. I voted to table the amendment because the current health care bill already upholds federal law, which states that no federal funds may be used for abortion unless the pregnancy is the result of an act of rape or incest, or where the life of the mother is in danger. With respect to abortion generally, I respect advocates on both sides of the abortion debate and understand that positions on the issue come from deep-rooted moral, religious and political values that, for many, cannot be compromised. It is critical that we as a nation continue to have a meaningful dialogue about an issue we all care about deeply.
I encourage you to visit my website, www.warner.senate.gov/healthcare, for additional information. I have posted the complete text of the bill, as well as the CBO cost estimate. Unfortunately the health care debate has resulted in a lot of myths and misinformation about the various bills being considered. Nonpartisan websites such as www.factcheck.org or www.politifact.org can be helpful in explaining specific provisions and clearing up confusion about this complex issue.
Thanks again for contacting me. As we move forward, I will continue to seek out the advice and opinions of all Virginians in order to help shape an improved health care system that will be in all of our best interests.
Sincerely,
MARK R. WARNER
United States Senator
