This health care debate has been long, thoughtful, and emotional. We continue to bear witness to statistics manipulated, political philosophies challenged, and television commercials peddling their points of view.
It is clear the 16th district of Ohio agrees on the need for health insurance reform and my vote must be about saving money for people in our district and reducing costs. But it is also about the important philosophical question of what side to take – the side of the American people or insurance companies who are already rationing our care.
I am weighing the views of our district and have reached the inescapable conclusion that people back home like Natoma Canfield, from Medina, Ohio, should not have to fight her insurance company as she fights for her life. I believe the nearly 40,000 citizens in our district are capable of making their health care choices rather than insurance company bean counters.
While this bill has a whole host of Republican ideas, it is a shame it seems it will have no Republican votes.
This bill may not be perfect but it strikes the proper balance of reducing costs, increasing consumer choices and lowering the staggering deficit from runaway health care spending.
In my opinion, a no vote perpetuates the status quo where insurance company bureaucrats make life and death decisions in the name of a profitable bottom line. A no vote condemns nearly 40,000 people in our district to a life's choice between the lesser of two evils: skyrocketing premiums or possible bankruptcy should they become ill.
This bill not only gives patients choice, it further reduces cost, further protects coverage, and further reduces waste, fraud, and abuse. The previous bill we voted on did not go far enough to produce these results. But this time, we are moving in the right direction. This time we truly invest in patient choice.
And now it is time I help deliver the health care reform we deserve.
The final reconciliation language to the health care bill, upon which I decided my vote, is available. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has also released its score on the final health care bill.
