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Altmire: Health care bill can't be revived
Source:
Cranberry Eagle
Written by:
Jared Stonesifer
Published:
February 10, 2010
CRANBERRY TWP — U.S. Rep Jason Altmire, D-4th, said Monday the health care bill is dead and there's no way to rejuvenate efforts to reform the country's health care system.
Altmire addressed small business owners at the first legislative luncheon of THE CHAMBER, the entity formed by the merger of the Cranberry and Northern Allegheny chambers of commerce. The congressman said he voted against the health bill because it veered away from what he saw as the most important aspect needing reform: the soaring cost of coverage.
He said some senior citizens in his district, which includes southern Butler County, had their Medicare rates jump about 45 percent last year alone and small business owners saw increases of at least 20 percent. Those kinds of hikes, he said, are unsustainable and need to be addressed.
He also said one out of every six dollars spent in America is on health care, which is why he's solely focused on lowering costs across the board.
"I voted against the bill because, despite the need, the discussion was taken in different directions," he said. "The discussion was hijacked into trying to cover everyone in the country, and it got away from lowering costs."
Forcing insurance companies to cover everyone isn't possible without costs skyrocketing, he said.
And with much discord among the public regarding reform, the congressman doesn't foresee "any way to pick up the pieces for health care reform."
Altmire also talked about Route 228 in Cranberry and efforts to widen the road. With the introduction of thousands of new jobs at Westinghouse Electric's new headquarters and other new development, the need for traffic improvements is more important now than a year ago, he said.
He met privately with members of the Regional Corridor Alliance, a road improvement advocacy group, before he spoke to the larger luncheon crowd. He said he supports efforts to make the road more accommodating to economic growth.
He called the highway the biggest business "hub" in Western Pennsylvania.
"There's a lot of progress in the growing corridor but there are opportunities to do more," he said. "We just have to find the funding."
Township manager Jerry Andree said basically "nothing has changed" in regard to the funding shortfall to upgrade the road, but said he is confident Altmire is doing everything he can to find money for the project.
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