‘Healthy Americans’ focus at Wyden GP forum
From our weekly issue dated November 18, 2009
Health care was a main topic when a few hundred people turned out for a Friday, Nov. 13 town hall meeting held by U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) at the Grants Pass High School Heater-Newman Memorial Gymnasium.
It was the 36th and final town hall held by Wyden this year. He has conducted more than 500 such gatherings since being elected to the Senate in 1996.
After being introduced by Grants Pass Mayor Mike Murphy, Wyden presented U.S. flags flown atop the nation’s capitol in Washington, D.C. to some of the veterans in the audience.
Wyden said that his legislative focus has been on reducing unemployment, expanding health-care coverage and reinvesting in the nation’s transportation infrastructure.
Programs aimed at improving forest health can help reduce Josephine County’s unemployment, which was 14.2 percent in September. That includes thinning second-growth timber, which Wyden said also can provide a clean source of energy.
“We’ve got to put people back to work,” he said.
In order to aid small businesses, Wyden said that the federal government should alter existing tax laws that currently reward companies for moving their manufacturing operations overseas.
“It’s time to bring incentives home to the United States,” he said.
Wyden discussed his proposed Healthy Americans Act at length. He stated that it would enable small businesses to pool their efforts for greater health-care purchasing power. It also would alter the longtime practice of employer-based coverage by making it portable, he said.
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The United States does not spend its health-care dollars in the right places, Wyden said. And he added that the health act would not add to the federal deficit.
Tort reform also is included in Wyden’s bill, he said, which is being co-sponsored by several conservative Republican legislators.
A discussion of the public option component of health-care reform drew shouts of dissent from some in the audience. Wyden said that option will be made available to only some six million Americans.
Wyden stated that his bill hasn’t received more serious consideration because many special-interest groups oppose it. Groups include insurance companies, trial lawyers, labor unions and health-care providers, he stated.
However, the senator predicted that most of his bill’s major provisions will end up in a final version of health-care legislation.
The health act also would cover all citizens equally, including members of Congress, Wyden said.
“There cannot be a double standard,” Wyden said. “That’s something I feel strongly about.”
In response to a question from the audience, Wyden said that his bill would not deny health care to the children of illegal immigrants. He said that no adult could receive a federal subsidy under his bill if their citizenship is undocumented, but would be able to spend their own money on health insurance coverage.
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