{"id":14832,"date":"2010-03-20T08:49:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-20T14:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=14832"},"modified":"2010-03-21T23:34:29","modified_gmt":"2010-03-22T05:34:29","slug":"teague-says-he%e2%80%99ll-vote-against-health-care-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/03\/teague-says-he%e2%80%99ll-vote-against-health-care-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Teague says he\u2019ll vote against health-care bill"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

U.S. Rep. Harry Teague (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

U.S. Rep. Harry Teague<\/a>, D-N.M., announced late Friday that he\u2019s going to vote against the health-care legislation that\u2019s coming up for a vote Sunday. Here\u2019s his full statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cLiving without\u00a0health insurance coverage\u00a0is something that I have experienced in my own life. Like so many\u00a0New Mexico families, both my parents worked to make ends meet, but they still could not afford health insurance for our family. When I was 17 years old, tragedy struck our home when both my parents got sick at the same time. I had no choice but to drop out of school and go to work to help support our family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had hoped to have a chance to vote on a bill that provided\u00a0affordable health care\u00a0options to all\u00a0American families, but after reviewing the final\u00a0health care reform proposal, I do not believe that the bill does enough to contain costs and it definitely does not do enough to rein in the out of control\u00a0insurance companies\u00a0that are driving up health care costs in this country. In fact, I believe we are doing more for the insurance companies than we are for the people who need this coverage, and that is why, despite the positive steps it takes, I must vote against this bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some pieces of the final\u00a0health care reform proposal\u00a0that I agree with, like ending the despicable practice of\u00a0insurance companies\u00a0canceling or denying coverage to people because of\u00a0pre-existing conditions\u00a0and it closes the\u00a0Medicare Part D\u00a0donut hole, guaranteeing lower drug costs for seniors. These are much needed changes that I support, but they aren\u2019t enough to rein in insurance companies and make health care truly affordable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have hosted 100 public meetings in southern\u00a0New Mexico\u00a0and\u00a0health care reform\u00a0was almost always a topic of conversation. People had strong opinions on both sides, but for the most part, we agreed that our\u00a0health care system\u00a0is broken and needs reforming. It is overly bureaucratic, it costs way too much, it covers too few, and it undermines our nation\u2019s economic strength. Health care spending\u00a0has spiraled out of control, piling costs on businesses, local governments, families and individuals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only way to fix that is to focus on lowering the cost of care. This bill mandates that every individual\u00a0buy health insurance, but it does little to address the cost of health care, which is why many New Mexicans are uninsured in the first place. It tells businesses to do the right thing and provide insurance for employees, but doesn\u2019t guarantee or require affordable options.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no doubt that we need to do more to improve health care in this country and that is why in my short time in Congress, I have supported expanding SCHIP. I voted to provide funding to\u00a0community health centers\u00a0and to protect seniors\u2019 access to care through Medicare. I have fought to improve health care for our veterans. And, I cosponsored the bill to eliminate the anti-trust exemptions that allow the\u00a0health insurance industry\u00a0to work behind closed doors to fix prices without fear of investigation or oversight.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoving forward, I will continue to fight for a\u00a0health care system\u00a0that puts patients before profits and that brings\u00a0health care costs\u00a0under control so people don\u2019t have to choose between paying the rent and a doctor\u2019s appointment.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Rep. Harry Teague, D-N.M., announced late Friday that he\u2019s going to vote against the health-care legislation that\u2019s coming up for a vote Sunday. Here\u2019s his full statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[117,116],"class_list":["post-14832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-health-care","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14832\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}