Pomeroy: Health care bill "a lifesaver for North Dakotans"

Hours before the U.S. House was scheduled to hold its historic and wildly contentious vote on health care reform Sunday, Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., announced that he would vote for the legislation because it “will literally be a lifesaver for North Dakotans.”

Joined in a teleconference by the state’s two U.S. senators, Democrats Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan, Pomeroy said the bill would strengthen consumer protections and Medicare benefits for senior citizens, ensure that North Dakota hospitals are treated fairly under Medicare reimbursement payments, cut the cost of health care for middle-class families and small businesses, and significantly reduce the federal deficit.

Pomeroy said the bill would “protect consumers from abusive practices that have been a perennial part of the insurance marketplace” and make health insurance more affordable than any other proposal he’s seen.

Pomeroy was among 219 Democrats to vote for the legislation, passed 219-212 late Sunday night. Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., voted no.

“It is not a government takeover of health care,” Dorgan said and the others repeated, addressing one of the most persistent challenges offered by opponents of the bill, who in recent days had flooded congressional offices with protest calls and staged raucous demonstrations at the Capitol.

The three lawmakers acknowledged that the bill “isn’t perfect,” in Pomeroy’s words, but they emphasized that the legislation has strong support from doctors, nurses, hospitals and other health care providers.

Republicans were quick to respond.

“To say this is a flawed bill is an understatement of epic proportions,” Tom Erickson, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in an email Sunday. “Hidden within its pages are massive cuts to Medicare, hundreds of billions of dollars in tax increases and infamous backroom deals.

“By supporting a massive government takeover of health care that will cause insurance premiums to rise, Earl Pomeroy has all but guaranteed that his current term in Congress will be his last.”

Pomeroy said he is “disappointed over the sharply partisan divide over its passage,” but “if we walk away now, Congress will not return to it for many, many years,” leading to higher premiums, higher costs, more uninsured and more red ink in the federal budget.

Pomeroy is seeking a 10th term this fall and will face Republican Rick Berg of Fargo, nominated by his party Saturday and already signaling that the health care reform issue will be a key part of his campaign.

“Obviously I’m disappointed that he’s voting against what a majority of North Dakotans want,” Berg said Sunday following Pomeroy’s announcement.

“This health care bill is a job killer at a time when we have almost 10 percent unemployment in this country, and our No. 1 priority should be getting people back to work and encouraging small business to grow. This bill really will have the opposite effect.”

Berg also said he has heard from many people who “feel they should have a choice on health insurance” and are concerned about the legislation’s effect on taxes.

Asked about the politics of Sunday’s vote, Pomeroy said, “The months to come will sort this out,” and that he would press the message that “this is going to make things better for North Dakotans.”

The delegation members said the reform package contains nothing authorizing any direct or indirect federal funding for abortion, with Pomeroy noting that Catholic nuns came to his office this week to express support for the bill and affirm that it is “for life.”

He said he had “been working very closely with Rep. Bart Stupak,” a Michigan Democrat and leading abortion opponent in Congress, “to make absolutely certain that this bill does not directly or indirectly” provide federal subsidies for abortion.

Pomeroy said he welcomed President Barack Obama’s stated intention to provide “further clarification” on the abortion issue in an executive order.

The delegation members said they are supporting the reform legislation because it would bar insurance companies from denying or dropping coverage based on pre-existing conditions, health status and gender. They said that would help 8,200 North Dakotans with pre-existing conditions get coverage, citing numbers from the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The bill “corrects a decades-old injustice that shortchanges North Dakota hospitals and doctors on Medicare reimbursements,” they said, bringing about $650 million in revenue into the state over the next decade. That would allow the state’s hospitals and clinics to hire more staff and expand and improve care.

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