Dodd Says Health Care Reform has to be Accomplished
DODD REACTION
Norwalk Hour
Katerina Voutsina
Boston University Washington News Service
10/14/2009
WASHINGTON – Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., expressed satisfaction Wednesday with the Senate Finance Committee’s approval of a health care reform bill.
“We have to get this done,” Dodd told reporters during his weekly conference call. He emphasized that passing a health care reform bill will be “significant for 100 percent of the American people.”
With support from Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, the Finance Committee approved Tuesday a $829-billion, 10-year health care bill. That bill now must be merged with a bill that Dodd shepherded through the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee earlier this summer.
“It has been literally three months since we completed our work on July 15,” Dodd said. “It was the longest mark-up in the history of that committee.”
Later on Wednesday afternoon, Dodd met with Max Baucus, chairman of the Finance Committee, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and White House officials to discuss merging the two bills. Dodd said he cannot predict what the final Senate bill will look like. Once the Senate bill is passed it will have to be reconciled with the House bill. Currently there are three House bills that must be merged into one.
Discussing the fact that the Finance Committee bill does not contain a public option, Dodd said he is “a huge advocate” of a government-run plan because he thinks that it would help reduce costs.
“Those costs cannot continue to escalate,” Dodd said. “We are watching too many people being unemployed in our state and when you lose your job, you lose your health care.” He said 28,000 people in Connecticut have lost health care over the last year.
Dodd also mentioned that the debate over health care does not focus any more on whether there should be a public option. “The question is which one works the best,” he said.
Dodd said Snowe, who was the only Republican to vote for the Finance Committee bill, is for a public option with a trigger that would bring in a public option if there was not competition.
“Now, there is a lot of room in what constitutes a good public option,” Dodd said. “I am still very optimistic that we can win that. It is important we do.”
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