(Host) Some members of Congress are getting an early start on what’s expected to be a big debate next year on the U.S. health care system. Peter Welch is one of them.
Todd Zwillich has more.
(Zwillich) The last time Congress tried to overhaul the U.S. health care system was in 1994. Utah Senator Robert Bennett was there to see the Clinton health plan unravel in a partisan and ugly battle.
(Bennett) "You ended up with so much blood on the floor that nobody wanted to revisit the issue until memories faded."
(Zwillich) Fourteen years later most of the wounds have healed. But the health care is more expensive and less available for millions of patients. Bennett, who’s a Republican, and Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat, have introduced a comprehensive health reform bill.
It mandates that all Americans get health coverage, but changes the tax code to make more money available to pay the premiums. Most employers would get out of the business of providing insurance for workers, but would have to spend part of the money they save on higher wages.
Vermont’s Peter Welch is one of about a dozen lawmakers sponsoring the bill in the House. He sees parallels between the bipartisan effort and Vermont’s effort to expand access to coverage.
(Welch) “In Vermont we went through a debate between a Democratic legislature, that was arguing for universal access, and a Republican governor, who was resisting, arguing cost. At a certain point we woke up and realized we were both right.”
(Zwillich) The bill also emphases preventive medicine and better care for chronic illnesses like diabetes and heart disease that cost the most money.
But even its supporters don’t expect it to pass, and certainly not this year. Instead they describe the bill as a framework for 2009. That’s when the new president is expected to bring the next major attempt at reforming US healthcare to Congress.
Bennett says it’s then that the real heavy lifting will start.
From Capitol News Connection, I’m Todd Zwillich for VPR News