Pascrell: We need a "robust" public Health Plan

(by Terrence T. McDonald - August 18, 2009)

Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-8) is ready to play hardball.

Pascrell, the former Paterson mayor and current seven-term congressman, is prepared to fight to pass controversial health care reform legislation. The congressman is a member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, one of three House of Representatives committees that have drafted their own health care reform bills.

The committee spent 70 hours writing the 1,100-page bill, said Pascrell, who bristles when opponents accuse lawmakers of not reading the legislation they approve.

"My hair stands up on end when someone asks, ‘Did you read the bill?’ I wrote the bill," he said during a meeting last week in his Paterson office with weekly newspaper editors and reporters.

The two-hour discussion touched on a variety of topics, veering from the war in Afghanistan to the $787 billion federal stimulus package to, briefly, Paula Abdul. But Pascrell was arguably most passionate about health care reform.

The bill’s most controversial component – a public, or government-run, health care plan – is a sticking point for many if not all Republicans and some conservative Democrats. Pascrell says such a plan is not only necessary, but must be "robust" to increase competition and bring down costs.

"We can’t afford to continue this system. We can’t afford to go down this road," he said.

The congressman mocked opponents who have claimed reform would "kill seniors," a claim based on a stipulation in the bill that would require Medicare to pay for consultations between doctors and patients on end-of-life decisions.

Discussing his own mother’s death this past March, Pascrell said seniors at the end of their lives are saddled with costs that can be avoided with the enactment of living wills and other such agreements.

"That’s not taking someone to the precipice of death," he maintained. "That’s dealing with the realities."

Complaints that government-run health care will lead to rationing don’t sway Pascrell, either. "We’re already rationing health care," he noted.

Though Democrats hold a 78-seat majority in the House of Representatives, the hesitancy of some conservative congressional Democrats – known as the Blue Dog Coalition – has cast doubt on the legislation’s future.

Democrats regained control of Congress in 2006 with the help of these Blue Dog Democrats, who won in districts that had historically voted Republican. Pascrell brushed aside the notion that it would be easier to pass health care reform if Democrats had a smaller but more liberal majority.

"Once you start thinking you can lose a few seats," Pascrell observed, "then you’re in the minority again."

The rancor over the health care reform debate has led to some intense town hall meetings across the nation. Angry protestors have shouted at Democratic members of Congress, chased them to their cars, even hanged them in effigy.

However, there will be no viral videos of such scenes at a Pascrell town hall meeting. Pascrell will hold tele-town hall meetings akin to conference calls, according to Paul Brubaker, the congressman’s communications director.

The protests at town hall meetings sponsored by some of Pascrell’s congressional colleagues did not factor into his decision to hold the meetings via telephone, said Brubaker.

"This was on our plan all along," he said.

Republicans are hoping that health care protests and President Obama’s slide in the polls – Gallup gives the president a 55 percent approval rating, down from nearly 70 percent in February – will lead to GOP victories in the 2010 midterm elections.

But don’t count on it, according to Pascrell.

"I think the Democrats will be all right," he observed, "if we stay to our core values."