We Seek Bipartisan Health Care
22 05 08 - 14:23
In his op-ed "The Republican Health-Care Surrender" (May 15), former Rep. Dick Armey is remembering the mindset of the 1994 health-care debate. We understand that mindset because we, along with many of our co-sponsors, were in Congress then and on opposite sides of the Clinton health-reform debate. This is a different day and we are working together on a different bill. We no longer see health reform in terms of "us vs. them." With all of the bipartisan cosponsors of the Healthy Americans Act, we just want to fix the broken health-care system.
We believe that every American should have affordable, private health insurance. The Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation have reviewed our bill and reported that it achieves that goal while cutting down costs and saving the government money.
Like Mr. Armey, we want to promote the principles of "consumer choice, individual responsibility and provider competition [in order to] transform our broken health-care system." Outside groups from business, labor and think tanks, conservative and liberal, have reviewed our bill and say that it does that. Consumers will be empowered with both the incentives and the responsibility to choose the plan that best meets their needs and insurers will compete on the basis of price, benefits and quality.
We don't want to force Americans to give up their current, employer-provided plans if they want to keep them. The Healthy Americans Act gives all who currently have a good insurance plan the choice to keep that plan.
We don't want government-run health care. Our bill reinvents government run programs like Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program by exposing them to marketplace forces.
Today is not 1994. The political climate has changed, the health-care crisis has worsened and Americans are no longer looking for a solution; they are demanding one. The only way we can meet that demand is working in a bipartisan effort, incorporating both Republican and Democratic principles. Fixing our broken health-care system will be a victory for the American people regardless of one's political affiliation.
Sen. Bob Bennett (R., Utah)
Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.)
Washington