U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman
This morning, U.S. Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall, both Democrats, held a joint tele-news conference with New Mexico reporters to discuss Thursday’s vote on the the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Listen to the call — recorded off a speaker phone — here.
Bingaman, a member of the “Gang of Six,” which forged many of the early provisions in the legislation, has said the bill is going “to help shrink the nation’s deficit and reduce the growth in health care costs that have been crippling family finances.”
“As a state with one of the fastest rising premium rates and a very high percentage of uninsured residents, New Mexico has a lot to gain from the passage of this bill,” Bingaman was quoted in a news release earlier this week.
U.S. Sen. Tom Udall
Today, Bingaman said nothing in the legislation is “etched in stone,” and he expected Congress to continue to modify this bill during reconciliation with a House version, and over the next few years.
He also said he is disappointed the measure was going to pass on a party-line vote because he contends numerous efforts were made to include Republicans “in a constructive way.”
Udall told reporters a provision to reauthorize the Indian Health Care Improvement Act — which he cosponsored — allows the United States to “live up to its treaty obligations.”
“We can’t truly address the health care crisis in our country without improving health care for all of our citizens, and that includes the 1.9 million American Indians and Alaska Natives whose health care is coordinated through this act,” Udall said.
Both senators say that they’re pleased the measure will provide more New Mexicans access to affordable health care and increase the number of doctors working in underserved areas of the state.
Bingaman said the bill, if adopted and signed by the president, will stop insurance companies from rescinding insurance policies from people “when they need it the most.”
Bingaman said within six months of the bill being enacted insurance companies would be prohibited from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions, and by 2014 a provision covering adults with pre-existing conditions would be phased in.
The state’s senior senator said legal scholars he’s talked to say Republican arguments that the bill may be unsconsitutional because it requires citizens to purchase insurance has “no real basis” because “clearly congress has the right to impose this requirement.”