Casey Talks Health Care

Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey (D) stated his stance on health care in a news conference this afternoon. Casey, a member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, says reform legislation is under way in the House and Senate and should be ready for action in the fall.

Casey says he supports a low-cost, public health care option that would help bring down prices of private insurers. He says he’d also like to increase insurance quality and nix any restrictions against those with pre-existing medical conditions. “After all of the trauma that’s caused for American families, why would they not just agree to do that? But we have to legislate that to force a policy that if you have a pre-existing condition, that will not prevent you from getting the health care you deserve,” says Casey.

The senator says a public option for health care is a necessity. “The worry, if we don’t have it, is that you’ll have health insurance companies be fairly cooperative for a couple of years and then go back to their old ways of driving up costs and not being nearly concerned enough about quality,” says Casey. He says bipartisanship is good, but required for the passage of this bill. “If Democrats support the bill and Republicans don’t, that’s just the nature of the legislative process. We’ve tried very hard to try to get proposals in place that are bipartisan, but that might not be possible. I think the important thing is to get reform passed and get a bill done,” says Casey.