By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — The Senate Finance Committee’s endorsement today of a sweeping health care reform bill was only one step in a long process, U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln said, adding that her vote for the plan in committee does not guarantee she will vote for it on the Senate floor.
In a conference call with Arkansas reporters shortly after the committee’s 14-9 vote, Lincoln, D-Ark., said the vote was historic, but much work lies ahead.
“We know that this is a historic moment,” she said. “We’ve never been this close to achieving health care reform before. However, it is but one step in a long process that began in this committee nearly 22 months ago and that will continue for weeks and months before a bill can be signed into law.”
Lincoln said the bill would not cut Medicare benefits and “would ensure that we put doctors and patients back in control of health care decisions rather than bureaucrats — whether it be government bureaucrats or insurance bureaucrats.” She suggested she could withdraw her support if the bill undergoes significant changes.
“My vote today does not ensure my support for a final product that may stray far from the … bill that we’ve produced,” she said.
Lincoln joined other Democrats on the committee and one Republican, Sen. Olympia Snow, R-Maine, in voting to approve the bill, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated would cost $829 billion over 10 years but would reduce the deficit by $81 billion over the same period.
The measure would be paid for with taxes, fees and reductions in Medicare costs. It would require all Americans to obtain health insurance, provide subsidies to help low-income get insurance, create exchanges where people could shop for good buys on insurance and ban denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions.
The bill does not include a government-run insurance option, but before it goes to the House it must be combined with a bill approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that does include a public option.
Republicans were quick to criticize Lincoln, who is seeking re-election next year to a third term.
“Instead of putting her constituents first, Lincoln decided to vote in favor of legislation that will increase health care costs for American families by $4,000 over the next 10 years,” the National Republican Senatorial Committee said in a news release.
“I don’t know where they come up with that when … the CBO has told us that we’re saving $80-plus billion,” Lincoln said.
State Sen. Gilbert Baker, R-Conway, one of seven candidates for the GOP nomination to challenge Lincoln next year, commented, “Spending is out of control in Washington, D.C., and Congress now wants to spend almost $1 trillion on legislation that will increase the cost of private insurance premiums and raise taxes on Arkansas’ middle-class families and employers. Democrats who have unchecked power in Washington now get to merge this 1,000-page bill with an even more extreme bill … At the end of the day, comprehensive health care reform must have broad bipartisan support.”
Lincoln said she has seen little interest in bipartisanship from Republicans.
“At the end of the day they’d already made their minds up before we’d even started that they were going to vote against it,” she said.
CORRECTION: Gilbert Baker’s comment was incorrectly attributed in an earlier version of this report. The error has been corrected.
