Russ Feingold's response to my letter

You gotta read this...


Dear Mr. Osen,

Thank you for contacting me with your concerns regarding health care. I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts with me.

On December 24, 2009, the Senate passed H.R. 3590, "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," by a vote of 60 to 39, with my support. I am deeply disappointed it does not include a public option to help keep down costs and I also don't like the deal making that secured votes with unjustifiable provisions. For this reason, on January 14, 2010, I sent the attached letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) urging them to strike unwarranted "sweeteners" in the final health reform bill. I have included the letter for your review.

The Senate health reform bill is not perfect, but it contains some good reforms while expanding coverage to more than 30 million Americans who currently go without insurance. I am pleased that the bill will decrease the deficit by $132 billion over the next ten years and up to a reported $1.3 trillion over twenty years. And, while it is not as strong as I would have preferred, I support the provisions rewarding physicians for the quality of care provided rather than the quantity of care, and ending the denial of coverage due to preexisting conditions. Despite the bill's flaws, it does meet the test of real reform, and the cost of inaction was much too high. You can find the text of the bill at http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h3590pp.txt.pdf.

You may be interested to know that the bill includes very important provisions for Wisconsin that I fought for. The bill will bring more Medicare dollars to Wisconsin by improving the unfair reimbursement formula that has siphoned money away from the state for years, and by rewarding the high-quality, low-cost care practiced at hospitals across Wisconsin. Wisconsin taxpayers also win because we will see a boost in Medicaid funding, so our state isn't harshly penalized for its leadership in expanding coverage. The bill also includes tax credits for small business and creates an insurance exchange for small businesses to make employee coverage more affordable. You can learn more about victories for Wisconsin in the Senate health reform bill from a fact sheet on my website http://feingold.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=321133&.

Again, thank you for contacting me. I am committed to improving access to health care and making health care more affordable for the people of Wisconsin. You can learn more about my work on health care reform, including updates about my work relating to the Senate bill, at my website at http://feingold.senate.gov/healthreform.html. I look forward to hearing from you in the future.