Toomey: Health focus should be cutting costs : Joe Napsha
By: Health Insurance
Submitted: 2009-08-17 13:53:03 | Word Count: 617
With the debate raging over health care reform, the government should concentrate on cutting costs of health care, rather than endangering the current insurance system, Republican U.S. senatorial candidate Patrick Toomey said Saturday in Murrysville.
"Rather than turning the whole system upside down, and jeopardizing private coverage many people have and are happy with, I think we should focus on (reducing) costs," Toomey said during a brief campaign stop at the Murrysville Community Days.
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Tort reform is necessary because the system has been hurt by "tremendously abusive lawsuits that add enormously to the cost of health care," said Toomey, 47, a former congressman from Leigh Valley. Without tort reform, there is not only the direct costs of medical malpractice insurance and legal bills, but an indirect cost of doctors conducting tests on patients to reduce the likelihood of a lawsuit, he noted.
More competition among health insurance carriers — by allowing consumers to purchase health insurance plans regulated by other states — will drive down the costs, thus making that coverage more affordable to people who don't have it, Toomey said.
"Some states have very onerous and expensive mandates that drive up the cost of health insurance, and some states have very few. Their health insurance is much more affordable. Why shouldn't Pennsylvania families get to decide which kind of policy they want?" Toomey said.
"By lowering the costs, you are going to dramatically improve the number of people who are insured," he added.
Toomey told a gathering of Westmoreland County Republicans, who had a tent at community event, that he can not see how any member of the Pennsylvania congressional delegation could vote for the carbon cap-and-trade bill — the American Clean Energy Security Act of 2009 — which is designed to curb carbon dioxide emissions. The House passed that bill by a narrow margin in June.
Toomey said the cap-and-trade system — in which industries can sell or buy permitted emissions up to the cap on those pollutants in a region — will significantly harm industries in Pennsylvania that rely upon coal production and coal burning for energy.
Toomey's campaign excursion into Western Pennsylvania comes on the heels of a new Rasmussen Reports poll showing the Republican challenger leading Sen. Arlen Specter, the longtime Republican and recent Democrat convert, by 12 points in the November 2010 race.
The polls show a dramatic turnaround for Toomey, who had trailed Specter by 11 points in the polls taken in June, prior to the recent battle over health care reform.
Toomey is expected to face a challenge for the Republican party nomination from Peg Luksik, 53, a conservative activist from Johnstown. She has announced her intention to run for the party's nomination next spring.
Toomey's brief visit yesterday morning in Murrysville was part of a very busy day for the Republican hopeful, who had spoken before a gathering of Young Republicans in Green Tree. After leaving Murrysville, he was meeting with Republican state committee persons in Lewistown, before ending the day in Juniata County, where he was to meet with that county's Republicans at a picnic.
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