PORT ANGELES — Norm Dicks says if the final health care reform bill doesn’t pay for itself, it won’t pass.
“We have to raise some revenue,” the Democratic congressman told a near-capacity crowd of about 100 people at an invitation-only health care forum Friday sponsored by the Clallam County Democratic Party at the Red Lion Hotel.
As Dicks spoke, scores of demonstrators waved signs outside.
He said he believed health care legislation will pass if the bill is found by the Congressional Budget Office to have enough revenue built in to not contribute to the national deficit.
He also referred to President Obama’s argument that he won’t sign a bill unless it pays for itself.
The House health care reform bill calls for a surcharge on the households with incomes of more than $350,000 a year.
The Senate’s finance committee has considered many revenue ideas, including taxes on soda pop or capping the tax-exempt status of employer-provided insurance.
Dicks said health-care reform is badly needed.
“Currently, the system is unsustainable,” he said.
Dicks said 47 million Americans are without health insurance now.
Another legislator representing the North Olympic Peninsula, state Rep. Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, also spoke to the group.
She said reform is needed to ensure that people can’t have medical service rejected by their insurance providers.
“People can’t go to the doctor because their insurance won’t cover it,” she said.
Other speakers
The meeting was invitation-only. But not all were Democrats.
Clallam County Republican Chairman Dick Pilling, there by invitation, was among those attending the approximately five-hour meeting that included panels on both health care and education.
Other speakers included Olympic Medical Center CEO Eric Lewis, veterans and tribal representatives, and an American woman living in Canada.
Mary Louise Meadow, a resident of Victoria and member of Democrats Abroad, spoke of the single-payer system in Canada, which was popular among many people in attendance.
She is a former chaplain in general and special hospitals in Toronto and serves on an advisory committee on end-of-life care at the University of Victoria.
Lewis said the House plan for health care reform would be good for rural areas, such as Clallam County, by providing incentives for more primary care doctors to work in those communities.
Rural areas have a hard time recruiting such doctors, he said.
“Overall, the [U.S. House] bill is very good,” Lewis said.
Jamestown S’Klallam tribe Health Director Bill Riley also spoke of a need to attract more primary care doctors to the area.
Riley said that proposed penalties on companies with a payroll of at least $250,000 that don’t provide health insurance to their employees should not apply to tribal governments, since health care is considered a treaty obligation.
While addressing Lower Elwha Klallam Chairwoman Frances Charles at the meeting, Dicks said that Congress recognizes the limited resources of many tribes to provide health care and added that additional funding through the Indian Health Service was approved for 2010.
Jerry Charles, head of veteran health services at the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, said the Peninsula is need of further funding for veteran health services.
He said there are 12,000 to 14,000 veterans that reside in Clallam and Jefferson counties, with between 3,000 and 6,000 enrolled in medical programs for veterans.
Jerry Charles said that typically they have to travel to Seattle to receive care through those programs.
“They are not getting the health care that they need,” he said.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
