Aderholt takes aim at health care legislation

Oneonta mayor Darryl Ray discusses need for funding assistance on proposed senior citizen center with Congressman Robert Aderholt. Ray said his request was well received. Contributing to the conversation were chamber president Charles Carr (left foreground) and Oneonta city manager Ed Lowe, (right foreground). Congressman Robert Aderholt (R) of Alabama’s 4th Congressional District including Blount County took aim at national health care legislation proposed by Demo-crats and supported by the Obama administration in an address to some 250 citizens at the monthly chamber of commerce breakfast last Wednesday at Twin Oaks at Heritage.

Aderholt said the legislation under current scrutiny is House Bill 3200, titled America’s Affordable Health Care Act of 2009. The bill was passed out of committee on July 31 with a vote of 31 in favor to 28 opposed and is now before the House for debate and final vote.

He characterized the debate as coming down basically to one of two propositions:

•Keep the present system and continue to pay cur- rent costs for the best healthcare in the world, or

•pay less and experience longer delays in getting healthcare services.

Aderholt said the bill “creates 53 new boards, commissions, programs and bureacracies.” It requires all individuals to have health insurance and makes all employers responsible for providing insurance for employees or for paying a noncompliance penalty equivalent to an 8 percent payroll tax. That money would go into a fund used to provide insurance for uncovered employees.

He criticized the cost of the overall plan which he said would amount to in excess of $1 trillion over 10 years, causing a 10 percent increase in the federal debt already pegged at a historic high of $11.7 trillion.

In a prepared statement, Aderholt said: “Healthcare in this country may not be perfect, but I don’t think we should throw out the entire system as we know it. Common sense reform is what we need, and that’s why I have co-sponsored a healthcare reform bill called the Empower Patients First Act (H.R. 3400). This legislation would create policy that relies on the principle that by increasing patients’ control over their health decisions we will make coverage more affordable, accessible, and responsive.

“I think you will see this debate take a completely different turn when Congress gets back in September. If the legislation in its present form is brought to the floor, it will fail,” Aderholt told the breakfast audience.

Aderholt then took questions from the audience.

One question concerned how adults can be provided for who are not old enough to qualify for Medicare but suffer from a debilitating illness requiring expensive medication.

Aderholt replied their plight could be dealth with through separate legislation not a part of the current proposed bill. He said both parties want to remedy that particular deficiency.

Another person asked if small businesses employing only three or four people would be required to provide insurance.

Aderholt said yes, but that other legislation already proposed, if passed, would allow small businesses to band together into collectives or cooperatives in order to benefit from economies of scale in obtaining favorable insurance rates.

Another question took the form of a suggestion to allow college students to remain on their parents’ insurance coverage until they graduate or until age 25 or 26. Aderholt said the idea has been proposed and met with favorable response. A bill proposing just such a change is not unlikely, although it has not been introduced as yet, he said.

A senior center manager told Aderholt that many seniors are afraid current legislation will introduce disruptions requiring them to change their doctors or have their coverage dropped for non-participation in certain specified programs.

Aderholt related those fears to provisions in the bill for end-of-life counseling and the possibility of assisted suicide. “I don’t think the government needs to be involved in either one of those things,” he said.

Aderholt directed his opening remarks Wednesday to the breakdown of voting strength by parties in the two houses of Congress. Democrats enjoy a 256 to 178 advantage over Republicans in the House of Representatives, and a 58 to 40 advantage in the Senate, he said.

He reported briefly that the Clean Energy and Security Act – the “cap and trade” bill – passed the House in June on a close vote of 219 to 212. The bill would increase energy costs by an average of $2000 annually per household, he said. It is now stalled in the Senate.

St. Vincent’s Blount sponsored the breakfast. President Shawn Tinney reported that the hospital will conduct a community health fair including free health screenings on Saturday, Aug. 29, from 8 a.m. until noon. He said the hospital performed well on a recent study of patient satisfaction, exceeding Birmingham metro-area leader Cooper Green Hospital in all except one category of the survey.