Pomeroy’s health vote insults North Dakota

North Dakotans should be disappointed in Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D, and Sens. Byron Dorgan, D, and Kent Conrad, D. On the other hand, Minnesotans in that state’s 7th Congressional District have reason to praise Rep. Collin Peterson, D.

Pomeroy went against the sentiments of a majority of North Dakotans late Sunday by voting for a deeply flawed overhaul of the nation’s health care system. In response, Dorgan and Conrad said they would support final amendments to the overall bill when they came to the Senate this week. They said they believed the legislation will cut the cost of health care and strengthen the system for all Americans.

Peterson, on the other hand, has been consistent in his opposition to the massive reform package, saying it would be both a budget-buster and increase the federal deficit. He voted “no.”

Peterson has the better argument.

The bill is so big, complex and far-reaching that anyone who claims to understand its implications is spinning a yarn. Even the Congressional Budget Office projections that the bill would reduce the deficit some 10 years out came with a caveat that the numbers are based on current conditions, and there really is no way to accurately predict so far into the future.

In other words, Congress has bet the future of the nation’s health care economy on educated guesswork. Pomeroy, Dorgan and Conrad, sincere as they might be, are party to “reforms” that have the potential to erode the best health care system in the world. There is little – nothing, some critics have concluded – in the bill that seriously addresses health care costs. There are extensions of insurance coverage that a lot of consumers might like, but those extensions have the potential to increase insurance premiums and do nothing to reduce the basic costs of providing health care. The costs of care drive insurance premiums.

There are several provisions in the legislation that have merit: closing the Medicare “doughnut hole”; high-risk pools for the uninsured; extending parents’ coverage to children to age 26; barring insurers from denying coverage to kids with pre-existing conditions. But the overall legislation looks to be a back-door approach to increasing taxes and putting the government between doctor and patient.

North Dakota’s trio of Democrats has a responsibility to pay attention to the wishes of the folks back home. They ignored those wishes and hopped onto a bandwagon driven by the president and Democratic congressional leadership.

Peterson did not. He stuck with his convictions, which are in line with the convictions of the majority of voters in the 7th District. Peterson got it right. Pomeroy got it wrong.
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