Published: 2009-06-30 15:49:20
Author: M. AMEDEO TUMOLILLO | New York Times | June 14, 2009
Republicans on Sunday continued to express strong concerns over the Obama administration’s plan to reform health care and its call for a public insurance option.
“I think that, for virtually every Republican, a government plan is a non-starter,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnellsaid on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “We know that, if the government gets in this business, pretty soon nobody else will be in the business.”
Senator Charles E. Grassleyof Iowa, the senior Republican of the Senate Finance Committee, added that that he had not determined whether the spending cuts Mr. Obama has outlined were realistic.
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.defended the administration’s plan, which aims to retain consumer choice and cut rising costs of medical care while extending coverage to the 45 million uninsured people in the country. But the overhaul is expected to cost more than $1 trillion over 10 years.
“It’s going to be one of the most comprehensive changes in the law since Medicare in the beginning,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Mr. Biden said there were a number of ways to offer the public insurance option that would lessen opposition to it, and that it would bring much-needed competition to the insurance industry.
Mr. McConnell, from Kentucky, said similar plans in other countries have led to delays in medical care, and that improvements to the system could be made with litigation reform and government incentive for wellness programs.Full story