Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Senate GOP launches health care attack

POLITICO (Washington) - As President Barack Obama tried to sell the American Medical Association today on his health care overhaul, the top Senate Republicans launched a familiar line of attack.
They warned of rationed medical care, lack of patient control and government bureaucracy.
"The American people will not stand for rationed health care," Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl said Monday. "We believe that a one size fits all approach is the wrong approach."
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, in a floor speech scheduled for this afternoon warned that what Americans "don't want is a Washington takeover of health care along the lines of what we've already seen with banks, insurance companies, and the auto industry. Americans don't want a government-run system that puts bureaucrats between patients and doctors."
Kyl and McConnell introduced a bill today that would bar the federal government from using "comparative effectiveness research" — which, Kyl charged in a news conference timed to coincide with Obama's AMA speech in Chicago, would lead to rationing of care.
Kyl said that the research would result in the delaying of health care treatment to a patient based on cost, which he believes would weaken the quality of care.
"I don't want America to begin rationing care to their citizens in the way these other countries do," Kyl said.
The GOP offensive comes as Obama began his most forceful push yet for a health care overhaul. At the center of the plan Obama outlined in his speech Monday is a vast expansion of a public option for patients. Obama has faced resistance from moderates in his own party, and from Republicans, who worry about the costs associated with a public option. Last week, Obama proposed $313 billion in savings to help pay for the overhaul.
But Kyl said today that a government-run plan would inevitably lead to poorer care for patients, and he was quick to point out that the AMA had been skeptical of Obama's call for a government insurance plan.
"No one should go without care and no one should go without quality care," Kyl said. "No one wants their care rationed by the insurance companies or the federal government."
Kyl also accused Obama of trying to ram a health care reform bill through Congress before the August recess before Americans fully understood the details of what he was proposing.
"It should be the American people listening to what Washington is proposing and then giving us their feedback," Kyl said.
Republicans have been criticized for not producing serious alternatives to the Democratic health care plan, but House GOP Conference Chairman Mike Pence told reporters today that Republicans in the lower chamber would begin bringing their alternatives to the fold in the days ahead.
"You're going to see Republicans in the coming days bringing forward policies for health care reform," Pence told reporters Monday afternoon, noting that the party rank-and-file believed a government plan would result in people losing their insurance.
Senate GOP Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) predicted that Americans would begin to sour on President Barack Obama's call for a public option.
"Washington takeover are two words we've been hearing a lot from the Obama Administration these days," said Alexander. "That's a different direction that Republicans want to go." Continued...
Source: Reuters

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