Supporters of health care reform stand outside the Highway to Health Care tour bus in front of the state Capitol Tuesday. (Photo by Rob Moritz)
By John Lyon and Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — A public option is not essential to reforming the country’s health care system, U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder said today.
Speaking to about 1,100 people during a talk arranged by the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, Snyder said he would not vote against a plan simply because it contained a public option, but he differs with those who see a public option as a necessity.
“I’ve never been a big fan of this public option,” said Snyder, a former family practice physician. “Over the weekend, it looks like there’s some people in the (Obama) administration who think that it’s not essential either. But if there is some kind of a public plan option, absolutely no one should be mandated to be in it.”
Though some in the audience occasionally shouted comments or booed, the 90-minute event at Little Rock’s Statehouse Convention Center was calmer than a public forum on health care that Snyder and U.S. Rep. Mike Ross, D-Prescott, held jointly on Aug. 5 at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Audience members at the earlier event often interrupted with jeers and heckling.
“I think … people showed today that they can disagree without being disagreeable, and I thought that was great,” Snyder told reporters after his talk.
His appearance was among a number of developments on health care reform today as members of Arkansas’ congressional delegation and supporters on both sides increasingly focus on the contentious issue.
Supporters of efforts in Congress to overhaul the nation’s health care system rallied at the Capitol, opponents announced events and forums, and U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., who earlier this month apologized for characterizing attempts by health care reform opponents to deliberately disrupted forums around the nation as “un-American,” set three town-hall meetings of her own in early September.
During a question-and-answer session after Snyder’s address today, several audience members voiced support for a public option, arguing that competition from a government-run insurance plan is necessary to compel private providers to lower costs.
Snyder said he has concerns about the government competing with private companies.
“Government would have an inherent advantage, I think,” he said, but he added, “I’m still trying to sort all that out.”
One person said the House’s health care proposal is estimated to cost $1 trillion over 10 years and asked how the government could pay for the proposal without raising taxes or “printing money.”
Snyder said health care in the U.S. now costs about $2.6 trillion a year. If $100 billion a year can be found somewhere in that $2.6 trillion, “we can dramatically improve the way our health care system works for Americans,” he said.
Snyder said he would not sign any bill that could not be paid for or interfered with patients’ ability to choose their doctor and their treatment.
One person asked about the potential for nonprofit insurance cooperatives to bring down health care costs. Snyder said he doubted that co-ops would ever make up a large share of the market.
“If you don’t get big numbers, then you don’t have much negotiation power,” he said.
Also today, the Highway to Health Care Reform tour bus stopped at the state Capitol for a news conference to promote health care reform.
“The bus … is part of a nationwide tour to generate and support more health care in this country,” said Rep. Jim Nickels, D-Sherwood, an attorney and director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Chapter 38.
“As someone who has negotiated contracts for health insurance in the public sector and has seen insurance premiums outpace wages, two things are clear,” he said. “The health care system is broken, and until we fix it we cannot expect our economy to get back on its feet.”
Nickels insisted a government-run health care provider that would compete with the private sector is still viable.
“It is AFSCME’s position that without a public option you’re not going to have health care reform,” he said. “We have to have that entity out there that would be able to come into the market and be able to take some of that market share, be competitive and lower the overall prices of our insurance premiums. We support the public option.”
Other supporters attending the event included Arkansas AFL-CIO President Alan Hughes, Candice Collins, director of Health Care for America Now! in Arkansas, the Rev. Steve Copley with the Interfaith for Worker Justice and Donna Moreau with the Arkansas Education Association.
The bus started its tour in Montana on Aug. 10. It visited Fayetteville on Monday and was scheduled to be in Shreveport and Baton Rouge later this week. The tour is to end
Friday in Maine.
Meanwhile today:
—The conservative Family Council announced it hold a panel discussion at 10 a.m. Wednesday in the Old Supreme Court chamber at the state Capitol.
—The Republican Party of Arkansas said it would hold the first of a series of town hall meetings on health care reform at 1 p.m. Saturday at 125 N. Market Street in Benton.
—U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., announced town hall meetings Sept. 1-4 in Little Rock, North Little Rock, Russellville, Pine Bluff and Jonesboro. Lincoln previously said she would not hold any town hall meetings during the August congressional recess, but she adjusted her schedule to accommodate constituents’ requests, her office said.
