Congressman Eric Massa

WXXI 1370am is running teasers for Need to Know (running tonight on WXXI TV) about their interview with Eric Massa. They are saying that Congressman Massa is blaming health care costs on medical lawsuits. Oy veh! Here’s an article I wrote on the tort reform mythology.

A number of us met with Congressman Massa about health care reform the week before last. He objected to paying for health care reform by rolling back Bush’s tax cuts on the rich. He said he wants to tax the insurance companies instead. Unfortunately that won’t raise enough revenue and it just allows the insurance companies to pass the costs onto consumers.

He also objected to tying the public option to Medicare reimbursement rates (which is part of how we can drive down costs). He said he talked to some accountants from hospitals and they said it would force them into the red. We tried to explain that HR 3200 will enable to hospitals to avoid all uncompensated care costs (those folks who show up at the emergency room with no insurance and get treatment), which will more than offset and Medicare reimbursement adjustments, and that the Medicare reimbursement changes go up for some procedures and down for others. But by then he was blowing smoke out his ears and yelling at us.

So, let’s review:

1. Massa protects his wealthy constituents (less than 1% of the district) from paying their fair share, rejecting the proposal to pay for health care reform by rolling back Bush’s tax cuts to these folks.
2. Massa sides with hospitals over consumers, taking their accountants’ word that they can’t afford to take more customers at the Medicare rates (but they’ll sure pocket uncompensated care savings).
3. And now WXXI is advertising his stand on medical lawsuits. If this is where he’s going he’ll be taking sides against patients and lining up with the medical providers,  shielding them from accountability.

WTF?

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3 Responses to “Oh No He Didn’t! Massa Calling for Tort Reform?”

• Jon Greenbaum says:

  August 23, 2009 at 2:06 pm

  poptort.com has a cool page showing how Sarah Palin is full of it when she says malpractice is driving up insurance rates.
  http://www.thepoptort.com/medical_malpractice/

  Here’s the fact sheet from Americans for Insurance Reform. http://centerjd.org/air/issues/MedMalDefensiveFactSheet2009F.html

  Reply to this Comment
• David Nevin says:

  September 21, 2009 at 6:20 pm

  Here is a video showing Eric Massa's response to a question about tort reform:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYPPcwvXcWE

  Reply to this Comment

• rochesterturning.com » Blog Archive » Does Metro Justice know who is helping push real health care reform? says:

  September 6, 2009 at 11:21 am

  [...] Bush tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans to pay for health care reform and that he wants “tort reform” (See my article on the Tort Reform Myth Machine here). Congressman Massa is all over the map [...]

  Reply