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Share this pageSen. Coburn demands a reading of Sen. Sanders’ single payer amendment
Posted by Don McCanne MD on Wednesday, Dec 16, 2009This entry is from Dr. McCanne's Quote of the Day, a daily health policy update on the single-payer health care reform movement. The QotD is archived on PNHP's website.
United States Senate
December 16, 2009SA 2837. Mr. SANDERS (for himself, Mr. BURRIS, and Mr. BROWN) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to amendment SA 2786 proposed by Mr. REID (for himself, Mr. BAUCUS, Mr. DODD, and Mr. HARKIN) to the bill H.R. 35
Beginning on page 1, strike line 6 and all the follows to the end and insert the following:
(b) Table of Contents.–The table of contents of this Act is as follows:
TITLE I–AMERICAN HEALTH SECURITY
…Full amendment (366 pages):
http://c-span.org/pdf/sanders_amend_2837.pdfThe reading of the amendment (live now – Dec. 16):
http://www.c-span.org/Watch/C-SPAN2.aspx
Today’s message was to have been composed after the introduction of and action on Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) single payer amendment to the Senate health care reform bill. His amendment would replace the body of the entire bill with a single payer bill.
When Sen. Sanders made the usual request that the reading of the amendment be waived, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) objected and demanded that the entire amendment be read under rules of regular order.
After one hour, 27 of the 366 pages have been read (or 767 pages in the GPO format). At that rate the reading should be completed at about 1:00 AM tomorrow.
Sen. Coburn is a physician. The Oath of Hippocrates states, “I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgement, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous.” As a United States Senator involved in a legislative process that should bring benefit to all patients in the nation, this oath should be sacrosanct. Apparently Sen. Coburn is determined to embellish his reputation as Dr. No, quite smug in carrying out his deleterious and mischievous acts.
Might the nation ask why a bill is so important that it must be read in its entirety? Maybe this a teaching moment that we can use to shift the dialogue from deceptive partisan rhetoric into a rational discussion of health policy science. The general public might be astonished to learn that we actually can provide high quality care to everyone at a price we can afford.
At least they can no longer claim that we can’t pass a bill that hasn’t been read.
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