On Thursday, March 17, 2010, Sen Ortman R-Chanhassen made a motion to bring HF3276 out of committee and onto the floor for the express purpose of debate prior to our congressional delegation voting on the health care reform bill this weekend.
After several minutes of ordinary business, the entire dialog can be viewed here:
http://www.senate.leg.state.mn.us/media/index.php?ls=&sid=195
Senator Ortman argued that the bill needed to come to the floor for immediate debate of the most pressing issue before our delegation in our lifetimes. The flaws include:
- (1) an unconstitutional individual mandate, (2) an unconstitutional capitation tax, and (3) definitions of health coverage by the members of a panel who are not accountable to voters and who are free to promote their own agendas; and
- by putting an inflexible ceiling on what insurers may spend on medical costs and how much they can charge on premiums, without any limit on their costs, the bill opens the door to the complete elimination of people’s ability to choose private health plans; and
- the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Program, an amendment to the federal Public Health Service Act intended to help individuals with functional impairments to pay for services and supports, is incorporated into H.R. 3590; and
- while the CLASS Act appears to bring in $58 billion in tax revenues by 2019, in fact the mechanics of the program’s funding assure its eventual collapse; and
- the American Academy of Actuaries has concluded that the program’s premiums are far too low to cover the expected claims because those who are likely to enroll are likely to need services; and
- both the AAA and the Congressional Budget Office project that the program’s projections are very uncertain past the 2019 cutoff and that program costs would eventually add to, and not reduce, the deficit;
Call to action needed immediately:
- Urge Minnesota’s congressional delegation to vote against H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
- Minnesota’s Attorney General needs to maintain legal action to protect the interests and constitutional rights of Minnesota’s citizens with regard to health care insurance.
- The Secretary of State of the State of Minnesota is directed to prepare copies of this memorial and transmit them to the President of the United States, the President and the Secretary of the United States Senate, the Speaker and the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives, Minnesota’s Senators and Representatives in Congress, and the Attorney General of Minnesota.
In a largely party line vote, the DFL controlled Senate muscled the motion off the table. (click to view)
The motion did not prevail.