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THE WRONG PRESCRIPTION: GOP PLAN WOULD HURT MISSOURI FAMILIES
For Immediate Release: November 2, 2009 Contact: Ryan Hobart (573) 636-5241 Ext. 125 THE WRONG PRESCRIPTION: GOP PLAN WOULD HURT MISSOURI FAMILIES CONGRESSMAN BLUNT’S NATIONAL HEALTH CARE PLAN ALTERNATIVE: LESS FOR MISSOURI FAMILIES, MORE FOR CORPORATE SPECIAL INTERESTS JEFFERSON CITY, MO – After railing against any and all democratic proposals for reform but failing to deliver a Republican alternative health care proposal for months, Congressman Blunt finally announced on Friday the Republican alternative health care plan that consists of 9 re-packaged bills that would increase premiums, undermine employer provided health care, and allow insurance companies to continue denying coverage to Missouri families. Congressman Blunt and his fellow Republicans have not offered estimates on how much the pack of bills would cost or if it would cover a significant portion of America’s uninsured. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a non-partisan organization, one of the proposals in the package [H.R. 2607] would increase premiums for 80 percent of small businesses. “Congressman Blunt’s Republican plan for health insurance reform is simply this: more for the insurance industry that bankrolls his campaigns and less for Missouri families,” said Brian Zuzenak, Executive Director of the Missouri Democratic Party. “The sickening truth is that this alternative Republican plan will push more Missourians off health care.” Over the course of Congressman Blunt’s 12 year record on health care he has supported cuts in Medicare, which nearly a million Missourians rely on, and now he is proposing increasing premiums that will benefit insurance companies and potentially cost Missouri families their coverage. And the hallmark health care policy of his Republican primary opponent State Senator Chuck Purgason is no better – championing the 2005 legislative proposal in the Missouri General Assembly that cut 100,000 Missourians from the Medicaid program and reduced benefits for another 300,000. [St Louis Beacon 7/23/09]. Congressman Roy Blunt, Senator Chuck Purgason and Kansas City auto consultant Mark Memoly are competing in the August 2010 primary for the Republican nomination for US Senate. --30--
