Daily Archive for September 16th, 2009

Washington – Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus has been working behind closed doors for months to write a healthcare bill that achieves President Obama’s political priorities. Speaking in June, he said, “It’s got to be written in a way that accomplishes the objectives of a public option.”

Today, he delivered on that commitment with a plan that includes hundreds of billions of dollars in government subsidies, a mandate that individuals carry health insurance, a prohibition on denying insurance coverage based on pre-existing and potentially costly medical conditions, a massive expansion of Medicaid, and government-directed healthcare cooperatives. Club President Chris Chocola issued the following statement in response:

“The healthcare proposal released today by the Senate Finance Committee is every bit as lethal as the government-run plan so loudly denounced across the nation last month. Clearly, President Obama and his congressional allies don’t realize the country has rejected what they’re proposing. Americans understand that any system – from co-ops to a public option – run by the government under rules imposed by the government with funding provided by the government is government-run healthcare by another name. And Americans realize that real reform doesn’t involve more government mandates and subsidies, as Senator Baucus has proposed, but solutions that empower patients, lower costs, and expand access to quality care.”

“It’s unfortunate that Senator Baucus missed an opportunity to help fix America’s health system and instead re-packaged the same rejected ‘reforms’ sought by the hard-left. His Republican colleagues, Senators Snowe, Grassley, and Enzi, should be praised for listening to their constituents and not signing on to this costly takeover of our healthcare sector.”

Press Release: Club for Growth