September 22, 2009

The Houston Chronicle

Cornyn blasts Baucus bill, says it be costly for Texas

By STEWART M. POWELL

WASHINGTON - Republican Sen. John Cornyn on Tuesday stepped squarely into the partisan melee over health care reform, warning Texans and the Senate Finance Committee that a proposed compromise by Senate Democrats' would saddle the Lone Star State with billions of dollars in added costs.

The San Antonio lawyer, leading GOP efforts to regain control of the Senate in 2010, drew upon a study he requested from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to contend that the Democrats' proposal would add 2.5 million more poor people to Texas' Medicaid rolls and boost state taxpayers' projected Medicaid costs by $20.4 billion over 10 years.

Statistics compiled by the Henry Kaiser Family Foundation, an independent think tank on health-related issues, show 4.1 million people of all ages in Texas enrolled in Medicaid in 2006. The state and federal government spent $20.6 billion to cover them.

The proposed compromise by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the 23-member Senate panel, "taxes too much and grows government too much" to become law over Republicans' objections, Cornyn said.

"We know already that the American people are weary of excessive government spending and they feel like Washington is not responsive to their concerns as we've seen on our TV screens and town hall meetings across the country," Cornyn declared.

Latest reports by the U.S. Census Bureau show the number of uninsured grew by 16 percent across the nation over the last seven years. In Texas, the number of uninsured jumped 24 percent over that same period, from 4.9 million to 6.1 million.

Baucus' proposal would extend coverage to about 29 million of the estimated 46 million uninsured nationwide and require everyone to obtain coverage.

Baucus, who worked for nearly two months with a bipartisan group of senators to fashion a plan, insisted the compromise "incorporates important ideas" from both Republicans and Democrats.

"Crafting a bill that addresses all of the concerns of our broken health care system is no easy task and I'm confident that working together we are even closer to that goal," Baucus said.

GOP opponents of Baucus' measure also have signaled plans to amend the measure. Cornyn and dozens of other senators, including Democrats, have filed at least 564 proposed amendments so far.

Cornyn said the Democrats' proposal would add as much as 10 percent to the cost of coverage bought in the private market. The measure also would potentially expose 91 percent of Texans with individual private policies to fines for inadequate coverage, he said.

Baucus' latest proposal subjects families to annual fines of up to $1,900 - down from $3,800 - if they fail to carry insurance covering at least 65 percent of their medical costs. 

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