It’s amazing that I live in the largest state in America and do not have a US Senator representing the Republican Party. As such you cannot blame Republicans for any earmarks in the recent 60 vote Senate approval of president Obama’s health care Bill.
However, let’s see how ineffective our two Senators were as compared to Sen. Ben Nelson who represents the huge state of Nebraska with its 1.7 million population.
According to today’s OC Register “the US government will pick up the full cost of a proposed expansion of Medicaid at an estimated cost of $100 million over ten years.”
With California’s population at 38 million, this translates to somewhere north of $2 billion dollars to our state which we will not be getting. Yup, they both sat at the table and let Senator Nelson outsmart them on behalf of his constituents.
Let’s see what else he was able to get for his vote. “Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska will be exempted from an annual fee on insurers; the exemption could also apply to nonprofit insurers in other states.
Supplemental “Medigap” policies such as those sold by Mutual of Omaha are exempted from the annual fee on insurers; a physician-owned hospital being built in Bellevue, Nebraska could get referrals from doctors who own it, avoiding a new ban in the Senate bill that will apply to hospitals built in the future.”
This is but one example of “let’s make a deal” while our state Senators were MIA.
Hm. At least DiFi and B-Box supported healthcare reform from the beginning, and will be there unlike the cranky old Insurance Exec Bill N. (no relation!) when we try to get a public option – something most Californians really want.