'Private sector profiteering' blasted by Wyden at forum in Enterprise

ENTERPRISE — Health care took center stage Friday at Sen. Ron Wyden’s Wallowa County town hall meeting in the Enterprise High School cafeteria.

Wyden, D-Ore., co-author of the Healthy Americans Act, fielded many questions on health care reform and the different options Congress is considering. He explained the differences between President Obama’s health plan, the House of Representatives bill and his bill.

“The president’s proposal is not legislation, it is a proposal,” Wyden told the more than 200 people who turned out for the town hall.

“I’m open to the public option,” Wyden said. “No plan, private or public, will hold down costs unless people have choices. Under other bills that have been written, 80 percent won’t get the public option.”

Wyden lambasted what he called “private sector profiteering.”

“Insurance companies are indefensible. They keep healthy people and send the sick people to the federal government for care,” the senator said.

One of the stipulations of the Healthy Americans Act is that everyone in America has the same choices in health care as members of Congress. Other advantages Wyden described are significant savings in administrative costs; guaranteed portability, meaning a person wouldn’t lose health care when a job is lost; and tax-free medical benefits will be capped at $40,000. Medical benefits received in amounts over $40,000 will be taxed.

Oregon is one of the states that holds medical costs down, yet is penalized by lower Medicare reimbursement, Wyden said. States that are not as fiscally responsible are receiving higher percentages of compensation. “Oregon should be rewarded rather than penalized,” Wyden said.

When asked if his bill would fund abortions or provide health care for illegal immigrants, he replied that the Hyde Amendment that prevents federal funding of abortions would remain intact and adult illegal immigrants over the age of 18 will not receive federally subsidized health care.

Wyden was asked how he felt about the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act, H.R. 980, a bill that would expand wilderness areas on public lands in the West. Wyden replied he is not pursuing such legislation in the Senate. He said his first priority in forest management is to “thin out second growth merchantable timber and get it to the mills. The reality is this fuel build-up is threatening healthy forests and healthy communities.”

A hot issue for Wallowa County residents is the U.S. Forest Service’s proposed Travel Management Plan for the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. A member of the audience called the plan “Draconian.’’

Wyden replied, “I share a lot of your concerns. We are at our best when we have multi-use in our national forests. I believe forest policy ought to start with multi-use.”

One member of the audience voiced concern about Obama’s so-called civil military. She also addressed concerns about many of the White House “czars,’’ special assistants appointed to the White House staff by the president, whom she termed “criminals and Marxists.’’

“There are no Communists in the White House,’’ Wyden said. “A lot of this information has no connection to reality.”