Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Lieberman's Official Response to Health Care Bill Messages

Here is the official response from Senator Joe Lieberman about his support for the Senate Health Care Bill. I got this after writing to his office:

Thank you for contacting me to express your opinion regarding health care reform efforts. I appreciate your taking the time to share your thoughts with me, and I want you to know that I hear and understand your concerns.

Americans today are faced with great uncertainty about their health care coverage and insurance. These concerns focus on rising medical costs, access to coverage, and quality of care. With more than 45 million uninsured Americans and health care spending levels that exceed any in the world, our current health care system is unsustainable. Too often, we reward quantity over quality. The need for health care reform is clear. We must begin to provide Americans with the high-quality, affordable health care they need.

As you may know, over the last several weeks, I and several of my colleagues have worked together with Senate leaders to reach an agreement on a health care reform plan that addresses three critical goals: curbing the enormous increases in health care costs that burden almost every American family and detract from economic growth; regulating insurance companies to better protect patients and consumers; and making it easier for millions of Americans who can't afford health insurance to buy it.

In my view, the resulting legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590), would make significant progress toward reaching all three of these goals, and does so in a fiscally responsible way. It is estimated that, under this bill, 31 million previously uninsured Americans will be able to purchase health insurance, resulting in 94 percent of Americans being covered. This represents a historic achievement that will move us closer to fulfilling the goal of universal coverage. In addition, this measure contains a number of strong provisions designed to ensure that insurance companies treat their customers fairly. Specifically, insurers would be prohibited from denying Americans coverage because of a pre-existing condition and from rescinding an individual's coverage if they become sick.

H.R. 3950 also takes a number of substantial steps to reduce health care costs in the long-term. I am particularly pleased that this final package includes elements of several amendments I cosponsored to contain costs, provide patients with more information so that they can make better decisions about their care, and create incentives for physicians to deliver high-quality, efficient care.

According to the Congressional Budget office (CBO), this legislation would reduce the federal deficit by $132 billion over the next ten years, and will continue to reduce costs in the following decade. This bill will also extend the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund for an additional nine years. Because of my serious concerns about our nation's long-term fiscal imbalances at this time, I opposed the inclusion of a non-essential government-run insurance program, including expanding Medicare to those 55 years of age and older. I felt any such new program was duplicative of other provisions in the underlying bill and could easily saddle the federal government with billions of dollars in additional debt and exacerbate Medicare's already perilous financial condition. Consequently, I supported Senate leaders' decision to remove such a plan from the final agreement.

On December 21, 2009, the Senate, with my support, approved a procedural motion that will allow the Senate to begin consideration of a comprehensive amendment that contains key provisions of the final compromise package by a vote of 60-40. The Senate is expected to pass H.R. 3590 on December 24, after which it will have to reach a compromise agreement with the U.S. House of Representatives, which passed separate health care reform legislation (the Affordable Health Care for American Act; H.R. 3962) earlier this year. To keep track of further developments on this legislation, you can click on the "Track a Bill" button at http://lieberman.senate.gov/.

I am hopeful that leaders from both chambers will come together in the spirit of compromise to achieve meaningful health care reform that expands coverage, reduces costs, and improves the quality of care for everyone. Looking forward, I will not be able to support any compromise agreement that either includes a public option or does not contain provisions designed to lower health care costs and reduce the national debt over the long term. Please be assured that I will keep your thoughts in mind as this debate continues to move forward.

Thank you again for sharing your views and concerns with me. I hope you will continue to visit my website at http://lieberman.senate.gov for updated news about my work on behalf of Connecticut and the nation. Please contact me if you have any additional questions or comments about our work in Congress.

Sincerely,

Joseph I. Lieberman
UNITED STATES SENATOR

10 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Penso che fare errori. Cerchiamo di discutere di questo. Scrivere a me in PM, ti parla. [url=http://lacasadicavour.com/tag/cialis-online/ ]generico viagra [/url]Che cosa un interessante questione generico cialis online La risposta incomparabilmente ... :)

Anonymous said...

hi! [url=http://esnips.com/web/minnaregina/]Hello. And Bye.
[/url] http://esnips.com/web/minnaregina/ free nude video clips of milfs
thanks!
free nude video clips of milfs

Anonymous said...

[u][b]Xrumer[/b][/u]

[b]Xrumer SEO Professionals

As Xrumer experts, we secure been using [url=http://www.xrumer-seo.com]Xrumer[/url] fitted a sustained leisure for the time being and remember how to harness the massive power of Xrumer and adapt it into a Banknotes machine.

We also provender the cheapest prices on the market. Diverse competitors desire charge 2x or temperate 3x and a end of the continuously 5x what we charge you. But we have faith in providing gigantic accommodation at a low affordable rate. The entire point of purchasing Xrumer blasts is because it is a cheaper variant to buying Xrumer. So we focusing to stifle that mental activity in rebuke and outfit you with the cheapest rate possible.

Not only do we cause the best prices but our turnaround heyday after your Xrumer posting is super fast. We compel have your posting done ahead of you certain it.

We also produce you with a roundish log of successful posts on manifold forums. So that you can notice over the extent of yourself the power of Xrumer and how we be struck by harnessed it to benefit your site.[/b]


[b]Search Engine Optimization

Using Xrumer you can trust to realize thousands upon thousands of backlinks exchange for your site. Many of the forums that your Location you settle upon be posted on get acute PageRank. Having your link on these sites can deep down help found up some top rank recoil from links and as a matter of fact riding-boot your Alexa Rating and Google PageRank rating through the roof.

This is making your position more and more popular. And with this developing in regard as well as PageRank you can envisage to see your site absolutely rank high in those Search Motor Results.
Conveyance

The amount of traffic that can be obtained by harnessing the power of Xrumer is enormous. You are publishing your plat to tens of thousands of forums. With our higher packages you may equivalent be publishing your locality to HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of forums. Imagine 1 post on a all the rage forum disposition usually cotton on to a leave 1000 or so views, with announce ' 100 of those people visiting your site. At once devise tens of thousands of posts on fashionable forums all getting 1000 views each. Your see trade liking withdraw through the roof.

These are all targeted visitors that are interested or curious far your site. Deem how many sales or leads you can succeed in with this great figure up of targeted visitors. You are literally stumbling upon a goldmine ready to be picked and profited from.

Remember, Above is Money.
[/b]

GET YOUR CHEAPLY ERUPTION TODAY:


http://www.xrumer-seo.com

Anonymous said...

[B]NZBsRus.com[/B]
Dont Bother With Sluggish Downloads With NZB Files You Can Hastily Find Movies, Games, MP3s, Software & Download Them at Electric Rates

[URL=http://www.nzbsrus.com][B]Newsgroup[/B][/URL]

Anonymous said...

[B]NZBsRus.com[/B]
Dismiss Laggin Downloads Using NZB Downloads You Can Hastily Find Movies, Console Games, MP3 Albums, Applications & Download Them @ Flying Speeds

[URL=http://www.nzbsrus.com][B]Newsgroup Search[/B][/URL]

Anonymous said...

Infatuation casinos? strike one out this young [url=http://www.realcazinoz.com]casino[/url] counsel and table online casino games like slots, blackjack, roulette, baccarat and more at www.realcazinoz.com .
you can also investigate our up to swain [url=http://freecasinogames2010.webs.com]casino[/url] pass done with something at http://freecasinogames2010.webs.com and best of floor with factual fabulously touched in the noodle !
another unsurpassed [url=http://www.ttittancasino.com]casino spiele[/url] acreage is www.ttittancasino.com , pro german gamblers, blunder in manumitted online casino bonus.

buy generic viagra said...

I think your blog is great information source & I like your way of writing and explaining the topics. Keep it up. I'm going to follow your blog.

Penis Enlargement Pills said...

nice posting keep blogging,....
i am very new in blogging, please and kindly visit my site,..
thanks a lot...♥♥♥♥

viagra online said...

Thanks a lot for this awesome post keep working and posting this kind of articles.....


mlance