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| Durbin Talks Health Care |
(IRN)-U. S. House Republicans are expected to vote Wednesday on a repeal of the Affordable Care Act that President Obama signed last March. But U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin says not so fast.
With small business owners and healthcare advocates at his side, Durbin explained Tuesday in Springfield why repealing the health care law is not in the best interest of Americans.
"We need to sell this better than we did the first time," Durbin said. "[Americans] view it as something that doesn't save money costs money. In fact the Congressional Budget Office tells us in the first ten years, we're going to save 230 billion dollars in costs to the federal government."
Durbin said it's unlikely the repeal would pass the U.S. Senate, but that Republicans are still working to undermine the law.
"This law has brought badly needed change to the American healthcare system and the American public is wading through all of the misinformation and manufactured confusion and realizing from personal experience and from their family members and neighbors, that the Affordable Care Act is working," said Jim Duffett, executive director of Campaign for Better Health Care.
Durbin made his announcement at Springfield’s Memorial Medical Center , whose president and CEO, Ed Curtis, says the law will have a positive impact on the way his hospital runs.
"We have a system in this country that pays for health care based on the volume of services, and we have to move to a system that pays on a value of service," Curtis said. “We've got to bend the cost curve as a nation and yes it’s going to impact this hospital. But it'll be in a positive way because we're going to make adjustments as we move to more value in terms of care provided."
"Many very sick people walk through the front doors of this hospital with no health insurance and no money in the bank," Durbin said. "They're still treated here and the costs of their treatment are passed along to everyone else. The purpose of this law is to make sure that 60 percent of the people currently uninsured in America will have health insurance protection. That means on average that 60 percent of the non-paying patients coming through that door in the future will be paying."
Durbin said arguments against the constitutionality of the law do not worry him.
"What we're trying to create is a bridge for every individual to reach health insurance coverage, to be able to shop for the right plan and afford the plan that they choose," Durbin said. "I think that's reasonable and I think it's constitutionally defensible."
So far, two court decisions have upheld the law and two have challenged it. No reversal of the law would take place until and if the Supreme Court takes up the matter.
(Source: Illinois Radio Network) |
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