What’s the 422?

One of Pennsylvania’s two U.S. Senators, Bob Casey, recently sent a letter to the Chester County Democratic Party explaining his position on the Senate health care bill that passed Christmas Eve.

Casey says he supported the public option and was disappointed it was not included. The House and Senate must now reconcile the two versions and pass a single bill for President Obama’s signature.

The letter is posted in its entirety below:

“Early this morning, the Senate made history by passing health care reform legislation with the first Christmas Eve vote in 114 years.

As a state public official for a decade, I was a strong advocate for health care reform. When I ran for the Senate, I made health care my number one policy priority. In the Senate, this was the culmination of a year of work. I was a member of Senator Kennedy’s HELP Committee that worked for weeks this summer on our bill and all through the fall to today’s vote that makes improvements to health care that have been sought for decades.

With legislation of this magnitude, compromises must be made. I voted for a strong public option in the HELP Committee and was upset when it was removed from the Senate bill. This legislation is not perfect, but it does contain fundamental reforms that will save both money and lives.

Under this bill coverage will be expanded to 31 million Americans who are currently uninsured. Insurance companies will not be able to deny you for a pre-existing condition, drop you if you become sick, or force you to pay unlimited amounts out of your own pocket for treatment.

This bill forces insurance companies to spend more on clinical services and quality of care and less on overhead and advertising. There are provisions that explicitly protect your choice of doctor and prevent insurance company bureaucrats from getting in the way of that relationship. Children benefit because the Children’s Health Insurance Program will be left intact and even have its funding extended.

Families will save money because premiums will go down. Small business will receive benefits that will help expand coverage and help their bottom line. Even major companies will become more competitive as the cost of health care falls due to reforms contained in this bill. Because it’s paid for, and due to dramatic reduction in waste and inefficiency in our health care system, this legislation will actually reduce the deficit by $132 billion over the next 10 years.

Again, this is not a perfect bill and I will continue to work for even stronger measures to improve the health care system. But these are by no measure small changes. When I first took office, the reforms included in this legislation were deemed unrealistic and actually passing them was unthinkable. Today, we accomplished something truly monumental and before we begin the next battle, we should take a moment to reflect on how far we have come.

Bob Casey”