Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Va Participation in State Health Care Reform Programs: Hearing Before the Committee on Veterans Affairs, United States Senate, One Hundred Third Congress, Second Session, February 9, 1994
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:08 p.m. in room SR-418, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. John D. Rockefeller IV (Chairman of the Committee) presiding.
Present: Senators Rockefeller, Daschle, Murkowski, Simpson, and Jeffords.
Also present (staff): Jim Gottlieb, chief counsel/staff director; Diana M. Zuckerman, professional staff member; Kim Lipsky, legislative aide; and John Moseman, minority staff director/chief counsel.
Opening Statement Of Chairman Rockefeller
Chairman Rockefeller. Good afternoon, everyone. I welcome you to this hearing.
There are a lot of us in these two bodies of Congress who are struggling very hard against what appears to be a well-financed and certainly very hard-working effort to kill all chances for national health care reform. But while we do this, there are a number of States who have shown us that reform can happen. When the needs of constituents outweigh the needs of commercial interests or special interest groups, reform can be accomplished in the States. And it certainly ought to be able to be accomplished at the national level.
Universal coverage and employer mandates may be debatable issues in Washington, DC, but they are essential ingredients in health care reform in Washington State. Everybody who has testified before the Finance Committee has said basically the same thing: You don't get universal coverage unless everybody participates; you don't get everybody participating on a voluntary basis, so you have to have mandates. Almost without exception, all witnesses have said that. Health alliances appear for some reason to be frightening to some, but not to the people of Minnesota, or Florida, or the State of Washington, because they have already decided they are the best way to provide cost-effective medical coverage for their citizens.
I applaud the efforts of the various States that are moving full-steam ahead with plans for health care reform. I advise my own State not to wait for the Federal Government, but to go ahead and get your own health care reform going.
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