U.S. Rep. Chris Carney has set his health care position on a sturdy three-legged stool, saying he will judge all reform legislation on affordability, portability and protection from getting barred from health care coverage due to pre-existing conditions.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research Educational Trust, premiums increased by 98 percent while wages only increased by 23 percent from 2000 to 2007. This puts a huge strain on our middle-class families, according to data on Carney’s Web site.
Increasing health care costs also threaten our nation’s ability to compete in the global economy. In the past 10 years, the cost of health insurance to businesses has increased 140 percent.
Reform ought to control costs, allow people to change jobs without losing health insurance and fear getting rejected by insurance companies for having pre-exsiting conditions. Those may be lofty goals, but regardless of political affiliation, most people ought to be able to recognize that those are worthy aims that fall on the side of protecting the interests of the people.
Yet, even standing on this safe ground, the congressman finds himself under fire, most recently from a group billing itself as the League of American Voters.
The ads imply that Carney — and a number of other Democrats — are vulnerable this year. “... If you think you’ve got trouble now back home in your district, cast the deciding vote for Obamacare.”
The name has a nice ring to it, but the membership, backers and beneficiaries of the group’s efforts are unclear. Its source of funding remains a mystery, and the league has only one name attached directly to it — executive director Bob Adams, a former strategist with the American Legislative Exchange Council, another organization with an abstract name that tried to influence public policy in concrete fashions.
SourceWatch.org, a watchdog Web site, notes that investigative reporters have linked the council with an insurance-industry effort to draft legislation that would make health care reform unconstitutional.
Carney’s postion on health care has been clear and consistent and consumer-oriented. Voters ought to keep that in mind when weighing the congressman’s words and deeds against threatening rhetoric from shadowy sources.
