Joe Lieberman says he’s weighed “all the pluses and minuses” and decided to vote “yes” on health care reconcilliation.
But from his comments today on the Senate floor, it sounds like it wasn’t an easy decision.
His full statement:
“Let me begin with the beginning before us now. The Reconciliation Act that is before us preserves most but not all of the health care reform the Senate adopted and I voted for in December. I concluded then and repeat now that together these measures achieve real change in the three big areas in which our health care system needs to be changed: reforming health care delivery to put a brake on the skyrocketing costs of care for individuals, families, businesses, and our government; better regulating health insurance companies to protect consumers, including those with pre-existing conditions; and helping millions of middle income Americans who can’t afford health insurance now to buy it. For me it is particularly noteworthy that the Senate bill plus the Reconciliation Act achieves all that progress without a government takeover of health care or health insurance.
“That would have been a very costly, deficit-exploding mistake, and would have fundamentally and adversely altered the traditional American balance of power between the public and private sectors that has worked so well over our history to create economic growth and opportunity and to build the American middle class. That is why I opposed the “so-called” public option so strenuously and why I am so grateful that it is not in the Reconciliation Act the House has sent us.
“Those are the big and good things I really appreciate in this health care reform package.
“What worries me about it? First, the size of this proposal concerns me, particularly at this time of national fiscal indebtedness and economic stress. I wish we had chosen to achieve health care reform, step-by-step, beginning with delivery reforms that would lower health costs, and then moving on to expand middle-class access to affordable health insurance and more aggressively regulating health insurance companies. But there was never enough bipartisan support for such step-by-step reform; I know because I tried to find it. So, now, along with each of my colleagues, I must vote on the proposal we have before us, not on one I wish we had before us.
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“My biggest concerns about this proposal are its prospective fiscal consequences. I worry that the savings this bill achieves in Medicare and the revenue it raises from new Medicare taxes to help pay for health care reform will soon be urgently needed to save Medicare itself from running out of money that it needs to pay the bills for seniors’ health care. And most of all I worry that the bottom line, consequences of this health care reform will be to increase our already ominous national debt.
“I am, of course, greatly encouraged by the conclusion of the independent non-partisan Congressional Budget Office that this health care reform legislation will not only not increase the debt but actually decrease it by more than a trillion dollars over the next two decades, and that its savings in Medicare will not only pay for part of health care reform but actually extend the solvency of the Medicare Hospital Trust Fund. According to the Chief Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the solvency of the Trust Fund will be extended by ten years as a result of the Senate health care reform bill that is now law.
“However, for those good and significant things to happen, future Congresses will have to be very disciplined and keep the promises that are made in this legislation to reform health care delivery to cut costs. Most of these reforms will over time be opposed by providers and beneficiaries. The record of Congress in resisting such pressure to stick with the costly status quo is not encouraging.
“In the end, after weighing all the plusses and minuses, I have decided to vote for this health care reform package, choosing its real change over the broken status quo, raising my hopes above my fears, and adding a personal prayer that future Congresses and Presidents do not weaken the reforms in this bill that will stop the constant increases in health care and health insurance costs and help reduce our national debt.
“That will happen best if we can achieve the bipartisanship in overseeing the implementation of this historic healthcare reform legislation that we unfortunately were not able to achieve in its passage.”
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