Lynch: I Voted No On HCR Because Senate Bill ‘Allowed The Insurance Companies To Prevail’

Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA)
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Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), who voted “no” on the Senate’s health care reform bill, sent a mailer to his constituents this month explaining his vote.

“We allowed the insurance companies to prevail,” he wrote.

Lynch’s office confirmed the authenticity of the mailer.

Lynch voted “yes” on the House health care reform bill last fall. But when the House voted on the Senate bill last month, the Massachusetts Democrat voted “no.”

Lynch writes that he switched his vote because the Senate bill “stripped out much of the reform that the House bill offered.” Lynch said the Senate bill restored antitrust exemptions for insurers, eliminated the chance for states to establish public health insurance options, and removed a tax on those with incomes above $500,000.

Maybe it was because we lacked the discipline to stay in the fight, perhaps it was because we lost the message war, I’m not sure. But in the end we allowed the insurance companies to prevail.

Lynch continues that although “we have added 32 million people to the insurance rolls,” he fears that “we have added them to a system that teeters on a state of serial dysfunction.”

In essence, we have paid the ransom but the insurance companies are still holding consumers hostage.

“I will continue to work to fix the bill that was just passed,” Lynch wrote. “We certainly have a lot of work to do.”

See the whole mailer here.

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