Political battle lines drawn on health care
A radio town hall meeting on health care reform Tuesday with U.S. Reps. Peter Roskam, a Wheaton Republican, and Danny Davis, a Chicago Democrat, was raucous and rowdy but avoided the chaos erupting at some forums across the nation this summer.
The two congressman stuck to party lines at the event in Chicago sponsored by radio station WLS 890-AM that also included doctors, insurance, hospital and business representatives as speakers.
"There's no way this plan is sustainable from an economic point of view," said Roskam.
"Anything you get that's worth having - you have to pay for it. If you don't pay for it one way - you pay for it another way," said Davis.
The Democrats' health care reform proposal seeks to lower costs, eliminate pre-existing condition denials, provide coverage for millions of uninsured Americans, and offer a public option, one of the most controversial items in the plan.
Republicans have a counterproposal that aims to increase access to health care and cut expenses through tax credits to low- and middle-income Americans, lawsuit reform and allowing small businesses to partner on health insurance plans.
Movement on the measure has stalled while Congress is on vacation, but the pace will pick up next week when lawmakers return to Washington.
"I believe in a single-payer national health care program," said Davis as some audience members booed. He added that scenario wasn't likely to happen but pledged, "I will fight hard for the continuation of the discussion of a public option and the expansion of health care so those left out will be cut in."
In answer to a Wheaton resident's question on whether her employer would stop providing private insurance and move to a government option if available, Roskam said that would likely happen.
"The cost pressure and temptation will be unbelievable to say, 'Hey look, I can dump this," he warned.
The two congressmen agreed Medicare fraud needed to be stopped.
"There is waste, fraud and abuse," Davis said. "We think that half the cost of what is proposed can be paid for by finding this and taking it out of the system."
Roskam sympathized with a woman asking, "Why should I have to pay the same insurance rates as someone is who is a smoker?"
Under the Democrats' proposal, a "person who does Pilates and is lean and mean and doesn't smoke" would pay the same as "a complete slob who smokes four packs a day," Roskam said.
Panelist and physician Claudia Fegan, past president of Physicians for National Health Care, backed reform, saying, "18,000 people a year die as a result of not having health insurance. We have to figure out how to provide health care for the people who need it."
Meanwhile, Senior Vice President of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois Dieter Freer noted that "85 percent of people in the country get health care through commercial carriers and over 90 percent are happy (with it)."