Yes votes from Woolsey, Thompson on health care

The North Coast’s two congressional leaders hailed passage of a landmark health care plan late Saturday, despite having reservations about some provisions in the bill.

Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, criticized a last-minute amendment pressed by Republicans that would place tight restrictions on federal funding for abortions.

Woolsey, co-chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, vowed to vote no on any final legislation that included those restrictions.

“I won’t, and I’m not alone, I tell you,” she said Saturday after casting her vote to support the House plan. “We’re not going to pass historic health care reform and take away women’s reproductive rights.”

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, held out similar concerns, saying he supports doctors and their patients making decisions regarding health care and that he is “pro-choice.”

But those concerns aside, Thompson and Woolsey were pleased the bill passed, saying it would improve health care for thousands on the North Coast.

“It’s another step closer to where we need to be,” said Thompson.

As a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, Thompson had a hand in crafting several provisions of what officially is known as the Affordable Health Care for America Act. He said they would improve access to health care in rural areas and boost Medicare reimbursement payments to doctors in Sonoma and Yolo counties.

Both Thompson and Woolsey cited an analysis by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce that shows health care would be improved along the North Coast as a result of what is contained in the bill.

That includes improving employer-based health care coverage for nearly 815,000 residents; giving up to 116,000 uninsured residents access to coverage; and protecting up to 1,600 families from bankruptcy due to unaffordable health costs.

Woolsey said during Saturday’s debate on the House floor that the bill would have made a difference in her own family years ago, when she didn’t have health insurance coverage.

“Our family would have been secure,” she said. “We would have been much healthier.”

Republicans, however, attacked the bill as an affront to American principles of freedom and self-reliance.

They said the government-run health care plan would lead to skyrocketing health care costs, a rationing of medical services, greater bureaucracy and a dangerous burden on American business.

One Republican lawmaker likened the bill to a “wrecking ball on the entire economy.”

Thompson called that sentiment “foolish.”

“We know businesses can’t afford the ever-rising cost of health care,” he said. “We know individuals can’t afford it. We know local governments can’t afford it. The wrecking ball to the economy is to stick our head in the sand and let costs continue to rise.”