Subject: [big campaign] FW: RELEASE: Van Hollen, Feder Discuss Conservative Approaches To Health Care
From: Adam Jentleson <[email-masked]>
To: "[email-masked]'" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:43:22 -0400
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

fyi

________________________________
From: Center for American Progress Action Fund [mailto:[email-masked]]
Sent: Thursday, July 23, 2009 2:12 PM
To: Adam Jentleson
Subject: RELEASE: Van Hollen, Feder Discuss Conservative Approaches To Health Care

[http://images1.americanprogress.org/il80web20037/cap/capaf_horizon_web.jpg]<http://www.americanprogressaction.org/>

For Immediate Release
July 23, 2009

Contact
Jason Rahlan, 202.481.8132
[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>

RELEASE: Van Hollen, Feder Discuss Conservative Approaches To Health Care

Van Hollen Says Conservatives Trying to "Hide The Ball" From Americans And "Break Promise" to Propose Bill Because Their Approach Would Be "Arrow In The Heart Of Employer-Based Health Coverage"; Feder Explains Unraveling Employer-Based System Has Been Longstanding Goal For Conservatives

Washington, DC -On a conference call today hosted by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Assistant to the Speaker of the House and CAPAF Senior Fellow Judy Feder discussed the dearth of proposals offered by conservatives, and suggested that the reason for the lack of details may be a hesitancy to explain to the American people that they want to unravel the employer-based health care system and put more Americans at risk of losing the insurance they have now.

Congressman Van Hollen said, "As you know, in the house, their quarterback on health care issues, Roy Blunt, promised that they would present a health reform bill, as their alternative, to the American people, so we can see where they were on this very important policy question. It appears that they are going to break that promise. They're not going to present a Republican alternative bill, and unfortunately the American people will not be able to see the details of some of the ideas that have been presented on the Republican side. Clearly they want to hide the ball from the American people because they know the American people are not going to like the consequences of whatever proposal they might roll out, based on the fragments that they've been presented already, which suggest that what the Republicans primarily are focused on is politics and not policy."

Congressman Van Hollen continued, "they've not drawn those fragments together and come up with a piece of Republican legislation because the minute they put those different ideas and fragments into a bill that is labeled the 'Republican alternative bill,' the American people will see that it will be an arrow in the heart of employer-based health coverage."

"What we do know is that fragments of the legislation that they have introduced to date - which in various ways including the way they treat employer based health plans from a tax perspective - would have the impact of providing great disincentives for employers who are currently providing health insurance and throwing them into the individual marketplace to fend for themselves and give them essentially a tax credit that does not begin to cover the costs of their health care."

CAPAF Senior Fellow Judy Feder explained that unraveling the employer-based health care system has been a longstanding goal for conservatives: "These Republican ideas reflect a long standing - and I'm talking back to the early 80's - strategy that Republicans have advocated to tax our benefits and unravel the employer-sponsored market we count on... and essentially puts us on our own against the insurance companies." Dr. Feder explained that conservatives in Congress are on record supporting these ideas: "It is exactly the same strategy in the Ryan bill, the so-called Patients Choice Act [also introduced by Sen. Coburn], the choices don't look so good as we analyze them, and, actually, in the Senate HELP Committee, all the members, except for one, actually voted for a proposal of this kind."

Elaborating on conservative ideas, Dr. Feder said, "those aren't about bending the curve, those are about undermining and unraveling the employer-sponsored health insurance system." On the other hand, progressives "are trying to strengthen it, not take it apart, and certainly not throw people who count on their employer-sponsored health insurance into an individual health insurance market with too little money and insufficient rules to protect us against discrimination based on pre-existing conditions."

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