October 12, 2009 in News

McMorris Rodgers calls for incremental health care reform

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The federal government should reform health care in steps, rather than through one major overhaul that would be as hard to change as it’s going to be to pass, U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers told a Spokane Valley crowd Monday.

Speaking to a crowd of mostly senior citizens, the Eastern Washington Republican said Congress should try to bring down insurance costs by limiting medical malpractice lawsuits, give businesses tax relief for offering health care to their employees, and allowing people to buy insurance from other states. It should cut paperwork and put more emphasis on information technology, she added.

If Senate Democrats try to push a health care bill through with just 51 votes through a parliamentary maneuver, “a lot of us will be standing up and basically just trying to shut the place down.”

But she said she was skeptical of President Barack Obama’s promise to find major savings in Medicare by cutting waste: “Every president has said we’re going to go after waste fraud and abuse” in Medicare.

The amount that doctors and hospitals receive from the government for Medicare patients, known as the reimbursement rate, needs to be changed so that Washington health care providers aren’t penalized for being more efficient, she added.

“These reimbursements need to be addressed. Medicare is on a path to bankruptcy,” she said.

The crowd, estimated at about 800, filled the bleachers on one side of the University High School gym and was generally supportive of McMorris Rodgers. But many speakers, who were chosen by drawing numbered tickets drawn from a Bingo spinner, had pointed words for Congress and politicians in general.

Members of Congress vote on bills they don’t even read, a woman who works in health care said. “If I did that at my job, I’d be fired,” she said.

Members of both parties have borrowed from the Social Security Trust Fund, said one questioner. “You’re absolutely right. Both parties have been guilty of spending too much money,” McMorris Rodgers said.

One person worried about being labeled a terrorist for protesting Obama policies, and another wondered if there was anything they could do because Americans “are losing our liberty.” She replied a Homeland Security report that projected a rise in right-wing extremism was “outrageous and totally inappropriate.”

But McMorris Rodgers was challenged on some of her stances on health care by a few questioners. One said that the waiting lists she denounces in Canadian health care show up in the United States in a different way. Wealthy people can get any treatment they want, while poor people without health insurance wait for treatement until they have to go to an emergency room, he said.

Republicans shouldn’t just object to Democratic proposals, he said: “Put something out there and let’s get it done.”

McMorris Rodgers said she wanted to address waiting lists by having more insurance options and fewer mandates from the government about what must be included in a plan.

Seven comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  zelda on October 12 at 10:18 p.m.

  She’s passing the hors d’oeuvres tray. Some crudités for Providence, mixed nuts for small business, smoked salmon for the Medical Association and tapas for INHS. Invited guests only. Nobody crashes this party.

• 

  Scoutster on October 12 at 10:55 p.m.

  Oh, Zelda…Why can’t all those who comment be as clever and interesting!? Thank you!

  As to Cathy, one has to wonder how she keeps her job. Tort reform? Mandates? The Party of No has nothing to offer in this debate. (If they had, they could have offered it anytime in the last eight years.)

  If it only takes 51 to get something going, then let’s go with 51.

  Let’s just get something new that actually works. I’ll follow any pretty pony with a real plan.

• 

  tbberwyn on October 12 at 11:03 p.m.

  - I have a relative who is at-risk for heart attack but can’t afford to have a procedure — she has four kids ranging in age from 2 to 10 — and has to wait until something major happens and she’s rushed to emergency.
  - I pay $2,300 a month for a kidney transplant and am almost bankrupt.
  - I’m unwilling to have my 8-year-old checked for autism because the insurers could deny him health insurance at any point in his lifetime for any procedure because of the mention of it in a doctor’s file — no diagnosis necessary, just the word, anywhere, in a file. Meanwhile, he’s stigmatized in school and misunderstood by ignorant parents.
  - An incremental approach will bankrupt me and could kill my relative.
  - The health insurance industry will eventually dump me.
  - We’re already in a two-class insurance system and it will get worse.
  - The insurance companies already decide who lives and dies and their ethical compass is the pitiful dollar.
  - The insurance companies are fighting this because of money — not health, and not because they care about making people better. It’s unethical. It’s blood money.
  - If incrementalism is the answer, then keep paying with blood stained bills and send one to your local republican.

• 

  Rifleman__Dodd on October 12 at 11:42 p.m.

  McMorris is too “Palinesque” for me. All fluff and no stuff. about time we send her back to that fruit stand. It should be noted her town hall was way out in the boonies for most Spokanites to attend.

• 

  leekinny on October 13 at 5:04 a.m.

  Rep. McMorris/Rodgers walks in lockstep with whatever the conservative leadership tells her to, without regard to what’s best for the people of this district.

  She voted in favor of all the inept decisions of the Bush/Cheney years and now she’s choosing to side with the heartless fat cats of the health insurance industry.

  She’s ideologically unable to work with the president and our outstanding senators in making Spokane a better place for all.

  She needs to go.

  her voting record…
  http://capwiz.com/networklobby/bio/keyvotes/?id=9059&lvl=C&azip=99223&bzip=

• 

  Diana on October 13 at 5:19 a.m.

  McMorris-Rodgers is nothing more than a follower who says what she is told to say.

• 

  DarthHater on October 13 at 6:39 a.m.

  Let them eat cake!