Monday, December 21, 2009

Florida vote split on Senate health-care legislation

Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson voted to move ahead on health care legislation early today, while Republican Sen. George LeMieux voted in the minority against the action.

The two vying for LeMieux's seat -- Gov. Charlie Crist and former House Speaker Marco Rubio -- remain dead-set against the legislation.

Following are the senators' statements:

Sen. Bill Nelson’s statement on health-care vote:
“In voting to move a health-care bill forward, my main goal was to help pass legislation that'll make health coverage more affordable and available for everybody. And one of my top priorities remains protecting seniors. Recently, I was able to pass an amendment to the bill that excluded some 800,000 policyholders all across
Florida from cuts to Medicare Advantage.

“I believe that no matter where people stand on certain specifics of this complex issue of reforming health care, most all of us should agree the current system can be unfair and too costly. It’s broken – and, it needs to be fixed.
“The legislation in the Senate certainly doesn’t have everything l want, like forcing
drug companies to lower prices for prescriptions covered under Medicare or allowing seniors to import lower-cost drugs from Canada. But no piece of legislation does.
“And when it comes to health care reform, we can't afford to sit by and do nothing anymore.
“I firmly believe this legislation will provide more affordable coverage for millions of uninsured Americans, prevent insurance companies from dropping folks who get sick and stop them from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions. The legislation
will also help reduce the country’s deficit.”

And from LeMieux's web site:

Republicans are continuing to fight against Democratic health care reform proposals, which would cut your Medicare, raise your taxes, and threaten your health care choices. We believe that any health care reform legislation should lower costs and expand access without raising your taxes or adding billions of dollars to the deficit.

1 comment:

  1. Huh? Only Crist and Rubio are candidates for Senate? I thought there was a whole 'nother political party with candidates for it. Did something change while I was sleeping?

    ReplyDelete