By Tom Grace
When the U.S. House of Representatives passed a sweeping health care bill _ H.R. 3962 _ last week, Rep. Scott Murphy, D-Glens Falls, was one of just 39 Democrats to vote no.
``Although there are many things I like about the bill, I don't believe it went far enough to control costs,'' Murphy said Tuesday. ``The House bill was great in terms of some of the insurance reforms, getting rid of the lifetime caps on benefits, the exclusion for pre-existing conditions, and frankly, getting almost everybody covered with a mandate that they have insurance,'' Murphy said.
``But I didn't think it did nearly enough to put the brakes on the ever-increasing cost of health insurance, and we really pushed off some of the things we need to do.''
If the House bill is adopted, American health care will continue to be based on transactions, with providers paid per procedure, an incentive to overuse the system, Murphy said.
``There are incentives in our system for providers to schedule more visits, more tests and more of everything else because that's how they pay the bills in their offices, but that's not the right model," he said. "People didn't become doctors or go into medical services to see how many transactions they could have; they did it to keep people healthy.''
Also, he noted, the House bill allows for $50 billion in new taxes to be levied on medical-device manufacturers and paper mills "" two large business interests in the 20th Congressional District, which he represents.
The House bill passed by a vote of 220 to 215, with only one Republican, Anh Cao of Louisiana, voting yes.
Among the 219 Democrats who supported the bill was Rep. Michael Arcuri, D-Utica.
In an e-mail to The Daily Star, Arcuri said he supports the bill for a variety of reasons, primarily financial considerations, such as cutting Medicare waste and fraud, capping out-of-pocket medical expenses and providing financial incentives for health, wellness and prevention programs.
He also approved of the bill's allowance for keeping dependents on their parents' health insurance until age 27, and prohibitions against discriminating against patients with pre-existing conditions.
Arcuri also supported the "public option," which would compete with private insurers, and favored the sale of insurance across state lines as a means to encourage competition.
House Republicans don't like the bill.
After it passed Nov. 7, the National Republican Committee released the following statement: "Today with help from their liberal House allies, President Obama and Nancy Pelosi finally got what they have been creating behind closed doors these past months _ a government-run health care experiment that will increase families' health care costs, increase the deficit, increase taxes on small businesses and the middle class and cut Medicare.''
However, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated H.R. 3962 would reduce federal budget deficits by $104 billion between 2010 and 2020, and slightly reduce deficits in the next decade by lowering the cost of health care when compared to the present health care system.
The Senate is now considering health care legislation, and House members will likely have chance to vote again on a reform measure influenced by Senate input.
Asked if he would support that bill, Murphy said, ``Possibly. We'll have to see what it includes."
