Baucus makes health care reform push

By The Montana Standard News Services - 11/13/2008

At a time when President-elect Barack Obama is trying to decide which of his expensive campaign pledges to address first in 2009, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., came out strongly Wednesday in favor of putting health care reform at or near the top of the list.

Baucus, as promised in a swing through Montana this fall, released a lengthy set of proposals that include expanding Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP and Indian health programs, providing more primary-care doctors, and increasing

preventive medical care.

Also as promised, the plan does not call for a so-called single-payer plan, but envisions a new "health insurance exchange" — a government administered place for the non-insured to shop for

private insurance coverage.

Like the reforms proposed by Obama, Baucas' plan would guarantee coverage regardless of pre-existing illnesses. It goes beyond the president-elect in

requiring everyone to buy health insurance, thus ending the shifting the costs of caring for the uninsured to those who are insured, which he said would bring down insurance costs for all.

Those who still could not afford

private insurance presumably would be covered by the expanded federal

programs.

Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, joins numerous Democrats calling for immediate health care reform, and he is expected to be teamed with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who chairs the Senate committee with jurisdiction over health care. Kennedy also has said that health care reform

cannot wait.

Obama's first priority has to be the economic meltdown, but in addition to health care he also has promised action on climate change, energy independence, and education reform, not mention those tax cuts for the middle class. Baucus and other Democrats are sending him a strong message that health care is a top priority too. "We all must realize," he said in his report, "that the costs of inaction, both in human and financial terms, will eventually be far greater than any initial outlays."

— Helena Independent Record

Contact your congressmen

Sen. Max Baucus (D)

Phone: (800) 332-6106

D.C. Phone (202) 224-2651

D.C. Fax (202) 224-0515

E-mail: baucus.senate.gov/contact/emailForm.cfm?subj=issue

Sen. Jon Tester (D)

Washington, D.C.

204 Russell Senate Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20510-2604

Phone: (202) 224-2644

Fax: (202) 224-8594

Rep. Dennis Rehberg (R)

516 Cannon House Office Bldg.

Washington, D.C. 20515

D.C. Phone (202) 225-3211

D.C. Fax (202) 225-5687

E-mail: house.gov/writerep/