Sen. Tom Coburn criticizes proposal on health care overhaul: LEGISLATION: REPUBLICANS BLOCK VOTES ON AMENDMENTS TO BILL
By: Health Insurance
Submitted: 2009-12-06 20:39:20 | Word Count: 407
Sen. Tom Coburn continued his attack on Senate health care legislation on Wednesday, saying it would create dozens of new government programs that would be administered by thousands of new federal employees.
“If you don’t think that will put government between you and your care, you have no understanding of health care in America,” the Oklahoma Republican said during the third day of Senate debate on a bill to overhaul the nation’s health insurance system.
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The Senate was consumed by hours of debate on Wednesday, but held no votes on amendments since Republicans blocked the action.
Democratic leaders accused Republicans of stalling and said they were willing to stay in session through Christmas to get the bill passed by the end of the year.
Coburn, who said on Tuesday that seniors would “die sooner” if the bill is passed, continued on Wednesday to argue that the bill would lead to health care rationing, with key decisions made by “government bureaucracies.”
Counting Medicare, Medicaid and veterans’ and American Indian care, the government is already involved in 61 percent of health care in the United States, Coburn said. If the Senate bill passes, he said, that would rise to 76 percent.
Coburn said it was “arrogant” of lawmakers to believe that they knew best how to improve the system.
But Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said it wasn’t arrogant to try to help people get health insurance. He said a recent study concluded that 44,000 people die each year because they lack health insurance.
“It’s not arrogant to fight for fundamental access to health care,” said Merkley.
And Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said opponents of the legislation complaining about government bureaucracies don’t have a problem with private insurance company bureaucrats who have “a profit motive to deny you care.”
Coburn, a physician, said he doesn’t like most of the insurance company representatives he has to deal with in his practice. But he said they do return his telephone calls.
“I never get a call back from Medicare,” he said. “The state doesn’t call me back on Medicaid.”
