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Nelson assures crowd: No autopilot
U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson assured those gathered at the McCook Heritage Senior Center that his vote on health care "is not on autopilot for anyone," eliciting a burst of applause from the crowd.
At the town hall meeting Sunday, spontaneous applause from about 300 of his hometown constituents also erupted when an audience member scoffed at the idea of healthcare reform not adding any money to the deficit or when Nelson commented "I don't see it happening" in reference to a public option plan.
For an hour, the crowd asked questions via submitted note cards or being called on by moderator Jim Ulrich, CEO of Community Hospital, concerning healthcare reform legislation that's currently being debated in the Senate Finance Committee. Nelson reiterating that his vote on a final bill will be based on what's best for Nebraska.
Whatever version of healthcare reform that comes out of the Senate Committee will still have to be blended with another bill from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Nelson said he understood the frustration and apprehension people felt toward the reform process and emphasized that he would not vote for any version or amendments that includes coverage for illegal immigrants or provides funding for abortions.
As for costs, "I don't trust Washington's numbers any better than you do," adding that before he votes on anything he wants to make sure it will "all add up" and not add to the deficit.
Yet Nelson believes the spiraling of costs of healthcare must be contained, citing healthcare costs projected to rise 9 percent each year. "When is the price going to price you out of the market?" he asked.
Health care reform must find ways how to slow down costs, Nelson contended, such as early prevention of diseases like obesity and Type II diabetes, improving the delivery of healthcare and emphasizing quality rather than quantity.
Preventative health care can go a long way in controlling costs, he said, as those who do pay for insurance help pick up the costs of those who can't, with 15 percent of health insurance premiums paying for costs accrued by the uninsured.
On the question of the rush to get healthcare reform through so quickly, Nelson agreed that the process should be slowed down. "We can't push this through if it it's this important," he contended and although some in Washington may not agree, "Some of us won't let that happen." Nelson said he co-authored a letter with his colleagues to "both sides of the aisle," asking for the process to be slowed down.
Nelson is in favor of comprehensive, bipartisan health care reform that Congress can pass this year, but the game is still in the beginning stages, he said.
"We're still in the first half of the first quarter," he told the crowd.
Other questions Nelson responded to included the lack of transparency in the reform process, which he responded that the message of healthcare reform "became garbled long ago." Misinformation such as "death panels" made the headlines, he said, but what got lost in the shuffle is that most everyone agrees that health care costs need to be restrained. Nelson predicted that when a final version of healthcare reform is completed and ready for a vote, it will be available online for the public to see, and be posted longer than the three days that was included in an original amendment that was killed in committee.
Other concerns voiced by those in the crowd include the $500 million Medicare is projected to lose under reform; Nelson said that was not totally correct but that Medicare reimbursements to providers would be limited and that actual benefits would not be touched.
On the hot-button issue of a public option plan, Nelson said he could not support it as proposed as he believes it would destabilize insurance for those who have insurance and may adversely impact government-run programs, such as Medicare. A better alternative may be nonprofit insurance cooperatives that would be patient-owned, not administered by the government and with the same laws governing insurance companies.
"There will be an awful lot of back and forth in that Finance Committee through this next week," Nelson said closing. "When it gets on the floor, if it does, there will be a lot more back and forth. I'll tell you when we're in the fourth quarter.
"We're going to going to make sure that whatever comes out is the right thing for Nebraska, and we don't want anything other than that."