Connolly: Health care reform should uphold choice

Rep. Gerald E. “Gerry” Connolly said on Tuesday that he wouldn’t vote for health care reform that taxed employee benefits and, a day later, he said he also will protect Americans’ right to choose their own doctors and insurance coverage.

“If you like the coverage you have, you’ve got to be able to keep it,” said Connolly, who represents much of Prince William County.

The 11th District Democrat held a telephone town meeting on health care Wednesday night.

The constituent event came only hours after Connolly attended a public meeting on the issue with President Barack Obama at Northern Virginia Community College’s Annandale campus.

Health care is the fastest-growing cost for individuals, businesses and the federal government, Connolly said in the town meeting with more than 50,000 households in Prince William and Fairfax counties.

“We spend more in health care than any other nation in the world — 18 percent of our GDP,” he said, “yet the results in terms of life expectancy, and morbidity and mortality rates are in the mid-range of industrialized countries.”

In addition to choice, Connolly said he’ll focus on three other factors as the health care reform is debated in Congress:

- Affordability. Reform must reduce costs for taxpayers, businesses and the federal government.

- No cherry-picking by providers.

“I want to prohibit any insurance company from cherry-picking who they cover based on pre-existing conditions,” Connolly said.

- Access. Forty-six million Americans don’t have medical insurance, and that costs the average family $627 a year, he said.

“Why?” Connolly asked. “Because when they get sick, they’re forced to visit the emergency room,  which cost over $43 billion a year for state, local and federal governments to cover.”

During the town meeting, Woodbridge resident Bruce Smith asked if legislation had been proposed to encourage more people to get into primary-care medicine, which often can prevent later illnesses.

Yes, Connolly said. The draft bill in the House of Representatives contains language that provides incentives — such as scholarships and loan-repayment programs —for those who want to enter the front lines of health care.

“There are a lot of provisions addressing that because there is a recognition that there’s a shortage of primary health-care providers in America, especially as we look out to the future years,” the congressman said.

A question by Carol McEvoy of Manassas also allowed Connolly to reiterate his opposition to taxing the medical benefits employers offer their workers.

“I think that’s the wrong approach,” Connolly said. “That’s not the way we ought to be financing health care reform in America.”

Staff writer Jonathan Hunley can be reached at 703-369-5738.