Something major happened yesterday. Democrats and Republicans, working together, unveiled a bipartisan comprehensive health care reform plan. Tom Daschle, Bob Dole and Howard Baker did what Congress is failing to do. They met all of President Obama's goals, and they fully financed their proposal.
And the White House released a statement praising this bipartisan leadership. In the House of Representatives, meanwhile, we are explicitly told not to work with Republicans.
Now, my personal belief is that Congress could begin marking up the bipartisan Wyden-Bennett Healthy Americans Act right away. Smart commentators like Jonathan Cohn at The New Republic and Ezra Klein at the Washington Post have praised this bill. It's progressive, it's bipartisan and it's deficit-neutral.
But on that point, I don't speak for everyone up here. All I know is that health care reform is on life support because the Senate can't figure out how to pay for it. Jon Cohn and Ezra Klein are worried. I'm worried. And I'm speaking out today because I've been through a failed health care reform process before. We can't afford to repeat those mistakes this year. Let's follow President Obama's lead and work together to finally provide health care to every American. And let's do it right now.
I'd now like to turn it over to Mike Castle, my good friend and-I might add-a fellow cosponsor of the Healthy Americans Act. Thanks.
Here is his faculty profile at Vanderbilt University:
click here
FACULTY PROFILE
Jim Cooper
Adjunct Professor of Health Care Management
Congressman for Tennessee's 5th District
Subject Area(s): Health Care
Biography:
Jim Cooper, Adjunct Professor, Health Care Policy U.S. Congressman, Tennessee (1982-1994, 2002-present) - Elected as youngest congressman in America - Budget, Armed Services, Energy & Commerce, Financial Services, and Small Business Committees - Authored chief rival to Clinton Health Care Plan (see, e.g. "The System: The Death of Health Care Reform, 1993-1994" by Haynes Johnson and David Broder (Little Brown, 1997) - Unsuccessful U.S. Senate race, 1994 Investment Banker (1995-2002) - Equitable Securities, and co-founder of Brentwood Capital Advisors - Public offerings and private placement of institutional equity Corporate Board Member of several public and private companies (1995-2002) - Chaired the Audit Committee of three public companies Attorney (1980-1982) - Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis - $80 million Subordinated Convertible Eurodollar Debenture Offering for HCA Recent Publications: - "Don't Give Up on Markets Yet," a book review of "Toward a Twenty-First Century Health Care System: The Contributions and Promise of Prepaid Group Practice," edited by Alain C. Enthoven and Laura A. Tollen (Jossey-Bass, 2004), Health Affairs, July/August, 2004. - "Is American Ready for Rationing?" a book review of "Can We Say No? The Challenge of Rationing Health Care," by Henry J. Aaron and William B. Schwartz with Melissa Cox (Brookings Institution Press, 2005), Health Affairs, November/December, 2005. Recently won the 2006 Judge Edward R. Finch Law Day Speech Award, top award in an annual competition sponsored by the American Bar Association.
Education:
B.A.,North Carolina Chapel Hill
B.A./M.A., Oxford, 1977 (Rhodes Scholar)
J.D., Harvard, 1980
Course(s) Taught:
- MGT 505: Health Care Regulation
Area(s) of Expertise:
Law and Regulation of the Health Care Industry
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