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Friday
March 19, 2010 Since 1922 |
Library now home to health care reform bill
By Luke Hales
Published November 6, 2009 Congressman Ted Poe made a stop at the Sterling Municipal Library this week, but it wasn’t to catch up on his reading.
Poe brought a copy of the current health care reform bill to Baytown’s public library so that area residents could see for themselves the source of much frustration in Washington, D.C.
“ It’s 1,990 pages long, it’s longer than ‘War and Peace,’ and not nearly as funny,” Poe said. Though he was joking, his sentiments are shared by many in the nation’s capitol.
The Affordable Health Care for America Act [H.R. 3962], which blends and updates the three versions of previous bills passed by the House committees of jurisdiction in July, embodies President Obama’s key goals for health reform. This bill seeks to expand health care coverage to the approximately 40 million Americans who are currently uninsured by lowering the cost of health care and making the system more efficient. To that end, it includes a new government-run insurance plan to compete with the private companies, a requirement that all Americans have health insurance, a prohibition on denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions and, to pay for it all, a surtax on households with an income above $350,000.
What is not neatly outlined in a summary is the complicated text within, a daunting reading project for both state representatives and regular concerned citizens.
“It is complicated,” Poe said. “And legislation has become more complicated. It should be simpler so that all Americans and not just some of the bureaucracy could understand it.”
Poe’s hope is that by bringing the bill to Baytown, those who do want to see what their government is pondering will be able to much more easily than through Internet searches or other means.
“I brought it so that we would have a copy here,” Poe said. “The public should be able to know what’s in the bill.
“I gave the libraries in my district a copy because it can be hard to find and hard to pull it up sometimes.”
Poe shared his thoughts on the bill, which were not necessarily supportive.
“This bill creates unintended consequences,” Poe said. “This bill creates and gives power to 111 government programs.”
Poe also finds some disparity in how the bill applies to Americans as a whole.
“This bill has to do with healthcare, but it exempts members of Congress from being placed under the provisions of the bill itself,” Poe said. “That just doesn’t seem fair to me.”
Poe also believes that, unfortunately, members of Congress aren’t informing themselves adequately enough to make a decision on the revolutionary legislation.
“The bill is being rushed to a vote,” Poe said. “I just don’t think members of Congress should vote on any legislation they haven’t read.”
Published November 6, 2009 Congressman Ted Poe made a stop at the Sterling Municipal Library this week, but it wasn’t to catch up on his reading.
Poe brought a copy of the current health care reform bill to Baytown’s public library so that area residents could see for themselves the source of much frustration in Washington, D.C.
“ It’s 1,990 pages long, it’s longer than ‘War and Peace,’ and not nearly as funny,” Poe said. Though he was joking, his sentiments are shared by many in the nation’s capitol.
The Affordable Health Care for America Act [H.R. 3962], which blends and updates the three versions of previous bills passed by the House committees of jurisdiction in July, embodies President Obama’s key goals for health reform. This bill seeks to expand health care coverage to the approximately 40 million Americans who are currently uninsured by lowering the cost of health care and making the system more efficient. To that end, it includes a new government-run insurance plan to compete with the private companies, a requirement that all Americans have health insurance, a prohibition on denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions and, to pay for it all, a surtax on households with an income above $350,000.
What is not neatly outlined in a summary is the complicated text within, a daunting reading project for both state representatives and regular concerned citizens.
“It is complicated,” Poe said. “And legislation has become more complicated. It should be simpler so that all Americans and not just some of the bureaucracy could understand it.”
Poe’s hope is that by bringing the bill to Baytown, those who do want to see what their government is pondering will be able to much more easily than through Internet searches or other means.
“I brought it so that we would have a copy here,” Poe said. “The public should be able to know what’s in the bill.
“I gave the libraries in my district a copy because it can be hard to find and hard to pull it up sometimes.”
Poe shared his thoughts on the bill, which were not necessarily supportive.
“This bill creates unintended consequences,” Poe said. “This bill creates and gives power to 111 government programs.”
Poe also finds some disparity in how the bill applies to Americans as a whole.
“This bill has to do with healthcare, but it exempts members of Congress from being placed under the provisions of the bill itself,” Poe said. “That just doesn’t seem fair to me.”
Poe also believes that, unfortunately, members of Congress aren’t informing themselves adequately enough to make a decision on the revolutionary legislation.
“The bill is being rushed to a vote,” Poe said. “I just don’t think members of Congress should vote on any legislation they haven’t read.”