NJ congressmen play key roles in health care effort

RAJU CHEBIUM
June 12, 2009

WASHINGTON - Momentum to overhaul the nation's health care system is so strong that reform legislation could be ready by the end of July, according to two New Jersey House members who are helping write it.

Reps. Frank Pallone of Long Branch and Rob Andrews of Haddon Heights, both of whom chair health subcommittees, are among six House Democrats chosen by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to write the House plan.

In separate interviews, they sketched what the legislation would accomplish, but they cautioned that details are fluid and the final cost to taxpayers is still being determined.

President Barack Obama, who wants lawmakers to send him a bill by Oct. 1, says reform would cost $1 trillion over the next decade. But that shouldn’t stop Congress from moving forward, he said.

"To preserve what's best about our health care system, we have to fix what doesn't work," Obama said Thursday in Green Bay, Wis. "We've reached the point where doing nothing about the cost of health care is no longer an option."

The Garden State lawmakers said the House plan would:

- Greatly reduce the number of uninsured people.

- Require employers to offer insurance or pay into a federally subsidized system where workers could purchase coverage.

- Create a separate publicly funded insurance plan, similar to Medicare, for people under 65.

Pallone said the plan also would boost the federal share of Medicaid funding and increase Medicaid's reimbursement rate for physicians to entice more of them to accept the government's insurance program for financially needy Americans.

Giving Americans and legal immigrants access to lower-cost health care would dramatically reduce the number of uninsured from the current high of 47 million. In addition, businesses would have more money for investments and people would have more cash to spend, Andrews said.

"We are not going to have economic growth … if we don't fix health care right now," he said. "This is really an economic growth plan more than a health care plan. This is really about freeing up money for families and businesses."

Pallone said insurers would be barred from refusing coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions, and people who are satisfied with their plans could keep them.

Asked how the country can afford these reforms at a time of exploding debt, Pallone said: "You are going to need a new source of revenue for the majority of (the reforms). If you're going to ask me what that is … that hasn't been resolved."

Republicans contend that the public plan option essentially amounts to a government takeover of the best health care system in the world. That would lessen the quality of care, increase bureaucracy and result in long waiting lines for treatment, as in Canada and England, they say.

Other critics, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, object to other aspects of the evolving House and Senate plans, which have not yet been formally drafted into bills. The powerful business lobby said it would oppose mandates requiring all businesses to offer health coverage to their employees.

One of the major players in health care reform will be Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Health Committee.

In addition to Pallone and Andrews, other New Jerseyans also are playing important roles in shaping the debate.

Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, is working with the panel's Democratic chairman, Montana Sen. Max Baucus, to craft a plan.

Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-Paterson, also has a role. He and other Democrats on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee met with Obama recently to discuss health care reform.

Pascrell said Congress must examine the way health care is managed and delivered to find areas to trim.

"We can't come up with the money until we know how much we are spending," Pascrell said. "To do that, we must find out the cost of procedures. I do believe we can bring the cost down, and I do believe we can bring down waste and fraud."