Just got this in my e-mail!
Sorry I don't really have any substantive content to share, I just wanted to share this exciting news with you guys. My Congressman, Bill Owens, has just come out in support of the health care reform bill.
He voted yes on the previous bill, and has been on the fence lately, but it looks like we successfully pushed him off that fence.
As someone who voted for Bill Owens, called voters for him, and convinced friends and family to vote for him, helping him win a narrow victory over teabagger Doug Hoffman last November, this victory tastes especially sweet.
Thank you for recently contacting me to express your support for health care reform. I appreciate that you took the time to share your views with me. I wanted to share with you the following statement I released this morning in support of H.R. 4872, the Health Care & Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010.
Statement of Congressman Bill Owens on Health Care Reform
Owens will vote to improve, increase coverage for hundreds of thousands of Upstate New Yorkers
WASHINGTON - Congressman Bill Owens today released the following statement regarding H.R. 4872, the Health Care & Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010:
"To reach a decision on one of the most important choices of my lifetime, I drew on numerous sources in order to gather all the information that I could. I read and studied the Senate legislation, the reconciliation bill, the nonpartisan financial findings from the Congressional Budget Office, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation report on the cost of inaction. I spoke to several representatives of New York State and our immediate community, and met with Congressman Paul Ryan, one of the leading Republican opponents of these bills. I also held numerous meetings with Upstate New Yorkers from every walk of life - from the AARP to working families, from labor unions to tea party members who came to my offices, from small business owners to CEOs of community hospitals. When I could not meet with constituents face-to-face, I held a telephone town hall with 3,700 people, during which a quarter of participants said that health care costs was the top concern, but 44 percent were more concerned with jobs. My staff was available in all five of my offices where thousands of calls were logged. The concerns I heard from constituents demonstrated both the need for health care reform to lower costs and to help our entrepreneurs create jobs.
"The math is sound on this bill. Currently, our nation spends $45 billion each year in uncompensated care alone. It is estimated that premium costs will go up at least another $45 billion, costing our economy at least $90 billion annually. In short, while Americans spend almost $2.5 trillion annually on health care, this legislation makes fiscal sense. For those reasons and many others, I intend to vote in favor of health care reform when it comes before the House of Representatives this Sunday.
"As I said during the decision-making process, I was not swayed by outside opinions, or misinformation campaigns from either side. I gathered all the available facts, and the correct decision was clear. In order to avoid astronomical rises in premiums, to improve our benefits, and to once again put our families - not insurance companies - in charge of their own health care this bill is needed.
"This legislation is necessary to once again return our nation to fiscal health and a robust economy. Should our nation continue down our current unsustainable path, we would be on track to spend one out of every five dollars our country earns on an ineffective health care system. This bill gives us the opportunity to provide health care to most uninsured Americans, and the opportunity to grow jobs in Upstate New York.
"After studying all the facts, I was presented with a simple choice: Do nothing and further burden our families and entrepreneurs, and allow our costs to spiral out of control, or take the first steps to reform our system in a way that will pay for itself and help America pull itself out of the recession.
"I believe this moves our communities and America forward."