Local News
Walz answers health care questions
Congressman Tim Walz thinks a health care reform bill can wait until fall if the extra time will lead to a better bill, he wrote Tuesday afternoon in an online question-and-answer session.
“Southern Minnesotans that I've talked to know that something had to be done and soon, but they want to make sure that we're getting it right,” he wrote.
The online meeting, set up by The Free Press on the Web site www.coveritlive.com, let constituents question Walz on the health care reform bill working its way through Congress. The comments had to be approved by Free Press Editor Joe Spear.
Someone posting under the name Dan Conner asked Walz whether it would be possible to ask other representatives to sacrifice part of their August recess to pass a bill.
Walz responded that the break would allow members to hear from constituents and lead to “a better chance of passing meaningful reform.”
The Mankato Democrat was vague on specific cost-cutting measures that would help the prevent the bill from expanding the federal debt. He has written that reform should not increase the budget deficit, but a recent Congressional Budget Office report said current proposals won’t save money.
Instead of cost-cutting details, he shared President Obama’s rhetoric that the current situation is untenable.
“The fact is that the average American family of 4 is going to see their health care cost go up $1,800 dollars a year if we do nothing, so that is clearly not an option,” he wrote.
Walz, who had to take breaks from the chat to vote on the House floor, faced a few unsympathetic questioners.
A participant who identified himself as Dr. Mike Bellows asked why Walz would take health care decisions out of patients’ hands.
“The decisions on my healthcare need to be made the doctor and patient in the same room, not by a government employee in an office in Washington 1,500 miles away,” he wrote.
Walz responded by saying there were 750 bankruptcies in southern Minnesota last year related to health care costs and 44,000 people without any coverage.
“I think they would disagree that our system is working,” he wrote.
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