Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, a member of the Finance Committee, will vote against the panel's health care reform bill.
It was supposed to be a bipartisan bill crafted by six Senate negotiators from both parties. But Roberts early on soured on their efforts long before the three Republicans involved in the talks bowed out.
Here's an excerpt from what he intends to say today as the committee begins its markup of the bill offered by its chairman, Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana:
''no matter how many good-faith compromises and bipartisan gestures are made here today, no one- not one person in Democratic leadership' has done anything to assure me that those compromises and that bipartisanship will be honored beyond this point.
'I hear from Kansans all of the time who wonder why it is necessary to completely and radically change our system of health care in order to gain insurance coverage for a relatively small number of uninsured Americans.
'They're not heartless- they just don't think that we need to sacrifice a system that works well for some three-quarters of this country, and spend trillions of dollars that we don't have, when there are other, more targeted options to reduce costs and increase insurance coverage.
'Options like tort reform, tax equity, and insurance market de-regulation that make both health care and health insurance more affordable for everyone.
'Instead, under Chairman Baucus' proposal, many of the people in my great state of Kansas will actually see their health costs go up!'
The preference should be to make common medical procedures not require a person to purchase insurance. Insurance reform is not the priority. Our elected representatives should be working to assist the producers of medical products and services to reduce their cost of production.
Trial Lawyers, as Plaintiff's counsel, impose a huge cost on the medical. Their actions act like a VAT (Value added tax). Tort reform does not need to have a limit on the dollar amounts, rather a loser pays methodology.
Lawyers are officers of the court. Should the plaintiff's counsel advise the court there is merit to the case and Should the plaintiff's counsel lose, plaintiff's counsel should be exposed to pay the defendent's legal fees.
In addition, all civil cases should be bench trials.
Do this and within a decade, I would be able to pay for common medical procedures out of pocket and only need a catastrophic insurance policy or program.
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Author: Chad