SPACE: GET IT DONE, GET IT RIGHT

Congressman Zack Space, negotiating a tightrope on the health reform bill, said yesterday he hopes to support final passage this fall but isn't ready to commit yet.

Speaking to supporters at a fund raiser in Heath, the second-term Democrat called the committee version he voted for last week a "good starting point."   But, he added, "I'm reserving judgment on support for the final bill."

Space, who represents the 18th District which includes parts of Licking County, finds himself at the center of a storm as a member of the so-called "Blue dog" caucus in the House which held out -- successfully -- last week for changes to the version of the bill before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.  This version now must be compromised with different language approved by two other House committees before a final House bill can be sent to the Senate.

Space said the Blue Dogs were trying to improve the bill, not stop it or kill it.

"I wanted to be part of a process that gets health care right, even if we don't get it right away," he said.  "It's too important to rush through."

The health system as it stands today is broken, he said, and needs to be fixed.  Space said he supported most of what was in the Obama-backed legislation put together in the House, including the creation of a Medicare-like "public option" to give consumers a choice between private and public insurance plans.

He withheld support, however, until administration and House Democratic leaders agreed last week to amend sections dealing with reimbursement rates for hospitals treating patients covered by the public option plan.  As originally drafted, hospitals would be reimbursed under the same formula now used with Medicaid patients.  Space and several other Blue dogs representing rural districts objected, holding out until they won a change in the committee version leaving hospital reimbursement rates up to future negotiation.

The problem, said Space, is that rural hospitals under Medicaid now get less in terms of reimbursement than do hospitals in urban settings.  "We can't afford to lose our hospitals," he said.  "That was a line in the sand I wasn't prepared to cross."

And it remains a deal-breaker in how he'll eventually vote on the bill, he said.

The "Blue dogs," described by Space as "fiscally responsible Democrats," are being both heavily courted and criticized as the White House and the congressional leadership seek to round up enough Democratic votes for passage -- without expectation of much Republican support.

Space was called to the White House for meetings on the legislation.  And President Obama tracked him down in Ohio yesterday, telephoning to thank him for his backing on the committee vote, Space said.

The congressman is running for re-election next year in a normally Republican-leaning district.  He, therefore, can expect an earful from both sides in the health-care debate during the August recess.

But while some congressmen were being savagely heckled  over the weekend by critics during local health-care forums, Space found a sympathetic audience at the fund raiser sponsored by the Licking County Democratic Club.  "It's good to be home," he said.

-- Gray Hunter

Comments

[Dennis Spisak]

Space either should back health care or switch to the Republican Party....so should Charlie Wilson!

[DrNotta]

It's no surprise that Space found a "sympathetic audience" at a FUNDRAISER. While "heckling" Space would've been emotionally satisfying, there's no way he'll get a nickel of my money. Everything we elected him to do - end the war, create single-payer health care, rein in the financial corporations - he's opposed. I guess he's just trying to be Bob Ney with his own hair, and milk the system for as much personal profit as he can. Sad.