by Connie Hair
07/31/2009
The markup resumed yesterday on the healthcare bill, H.R. 3200, in the House Energy & Commerce Committee. The Blue Lapdogs have caved in and the government takeover of healthcare is expected to pass out of the third and final House committee of jurisdiction later today. The markup was the usual scene: Democrats running roughshod over anything sensible, like requiring proof of citizenship to sign up for government run healthcare on the taxpayer dime.
Rep. Nathan Deal (R-Ga.) offered an amendment in the markup that would have ensured the laws barring illegal aliens from legally signing up for Medicaid would also apply to the new government run healthcare system that Democrats are determined to construct.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Ca.), the uber-liberal committee chair, feigned concern for hospitals not being able to be reimbursed for treating illegals and therefore going broke. His solution, of course, was to impose the cost of treating illegals on the taxpayers. The Deal amendment failed.
Zack Space (D-Ohio) and Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) are two Blue Lapdogs on the committee who voted against the amendment barring proof of citizenship to sign up for government run healthcare. They joined the rest of the liberals in committee paying for healthcare for illegal aliens with your tax dollars. The amendment is here (pdf) and the committee vote tally is here.
Outside of the markup, I caught up to Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.), a senior member of the Energy & Commerce Committee, and asked about the proof of citizenship amendment that had just been smacked down by Democrats.
“They clearly just voted that illegal immigrants should get free healthcare under this bill — period,” Shadegg said. “It’s obvious that the Blue Dogs are, in fact, lapdogs. They have given in, they have caved, as was predicted they would do. … Having caved they’re now going to accept every amendment that the Democrats want and reject every amendment that the Republicans want. And the bill gets worse and worse by the moment.”
I asked how the bill in markup was shaping up to protect healthcare for the elderly.
“The scary thing is exactly how far they will go under this bill,” Shadegg said. “If you listen to their rhetoric it means that the elderly are going to get sick, get into those late stages of life and they’re going to be told that in America you really kind of owe it to the country to go off and get hospice counseling and go away.”
They’re throwing grandma and grandpa under the bus. I asked Shadegg about the August break, how things might play out for the House bill.
“Assuming they push the bill through, the American people will get August to look at how bad this bill is and how many of their current freedoms they’re going to lose,” Shadegg said.
“They’re going to lose virtually every healthcare freedom they have. They’re going to lose the freedom to pick their own doctor. They’re going to lose the freedom to pick a high-deductible catastrophic care policy. They’re going to lose the right to pick their own healthcare plan. They’re going to get stuck in a system that is Washington, D.C., command and control — bureaucrats in Washington dictating what services they get and what services they can’t get. I think that will be a disaster and I hope the American people say that’s not what they want.”
I also spoke with Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) in the hallway outside the markup about the Blue Lapdog rollover and what Democrats are now putting into the bill.
“This bill still adds tremendous costs that are unaccounted for and it raises over $800 billion in new taxes on American families and small businesses,” Scalise said. “If they really want to do healthcare reform they should go back to the table and work with Republicans who’ve put forth good, sound ideas on the table to fix the problems that exist without breaking all the things that make medical care in America the best in the world. We’ll go back in the August recess and show the American people all the parts of their bill that actually allow the government to ration care, to interfere with the doctor-patient relationship and literally allow hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes on American families. Government takeover is not the answer. There is a better way.”
The markup continues today.
Republican Study Committee Unveils Healthcare Plan
Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), Chairman of the Republican Study Committee and a former orthopedic surgeon, unveiled his conservative group’s healthcare plan yesterday, the Empowering Patients First Act. Focused on allowing the patient control over their own insurance and healthcare decisions, this plan actually incorporates the tort reform reported on HUMAN EVENTS earlier this week.
The bill would allow patient ownership of the policy, which would solve the portability problem when workers lose or change jobs. A combinat
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It’s far too long to read, but there is no question about it. It’s a crock.