Sen. Baucus respects our views
Hearing on “Expanding Health Care Coverage”
Senate Committee on Finance
May 5, 2009
The opening of the hearing was disrupted by a passionate protest from the audience…
Person from audience: (at end of the protest)… We need health care now! Put single payer on the table now!
Sen. John Kerry: Is there anyone in the audience who didn’t come to…
(Laughter)
Sen Max Baucus: Let me say this. I think I speak for everybody on the committee and everybody in the Congress… deeply, deeply respect the views of all members of the audience and of all Americans who feel deeply about health care reform, especially those who are worried about single pay system, public option, who really do fervently believe that is the proper result. That is a view that many people have. It’s a view which I respect. There are other approaches to health care reform which also I respect. The whole point of this hearing and other hearings is to try to determine the best route, the best option, in determining how to best reform our country’s health care system. So for those of you who remain in the audience who may be inclined to stand up and, out of order, to state your views, I encourage you to not do so, because I want you to know that I personally care deeply about your views. I deeply respect your views. I hear what you say. I talk to a lot of people in my home state of Montana who have the exact same views. I represent 900,000 of the world’s best bosses, Montanans, and many of them have the very same view. But we aren’t going to get the best result here… the more we can have an orderly discussion of how we should best reform the health care system. So I want to say to everyone, especially those of you who might be inclined to stand up, that I urge you not to so we can proceed with the hearing holding your views also deeply in mind as we proceed. Thank you.
http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/hearing050509.html (includes the list of witnesses and their testimonies)
Comment:
By Don McCanne, MD
Apparently the single payer views must have been held very deeply, hidden in the minds of the Senators and the witnesses, since at no time during the hearing was single payer discussed as an option for reform.
It is one thing to respect the views of those who support a model of reform that actually would provide all necessary health care for everyone and make it affordable for each and every individual, but it is quite something else to restrict the discussion to options that cannot ever achieve those goals.
This hearing represents the the framework of reform that is being crafted behind closed doors. The tragedy is that any bill that results from this process will delay further the reform that we desperately need. In the meantime, tens of millions or more will face unnecessary physical suffering and financial hardship, and many will die.
The epitaph: BUT MY VIEWS WERE RESPECTED