Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday that President Obama’s health-reform plan does nothing to contain runaway medical costs or deliver better care.
“It does not address the total cost of health care in our country, it does not address the fact that we spend double what they do in Western Europe and have a lower life expectancy, but it does address coverage,” Bloomberg told reporters.
“It’s a system we can’t afford in total in this country, and a system that’s not delivering the kind of health care that we want.”
Bloomberg also indicated that he has no choice but to enforce the law of the land.
“At this point, Congress has spoken . . . the president will sign it and then we’ll have to implement it. And that’s where I’m going to focus my efforts,” he said.
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EDITORIAL: The mayor’s Office of Management and Budget is conducting an analysis of reforms to determine if they’ll end up as a net plus or loss for the city.
Last week, Bloomberg warned that New Yorkers would pay a disproportionate share of the expenses since the Medicare tax is being increased 0.9 percent starting in 2013 on couples earning $250,000 or more ($200,000 for singles), while an added Medicare tax of 3.8 percent is being imposed on investment earnings of those same high-earning taxpayers.
Gov. Paterson expressed no such concern in an appearance at City Hall yesterday with the mayor, calling the bill “historic.”.
Meanwhile, Rep. Anthony Weiner, one of the bill’s staunchest proponents, pronounced it a home run for both the city and state.
He said health-care facilities in the city spent $3.5 billion providing uncompensated care in 2008 to people who didn’t have insurance.
That burden, Weiner said, would be relieved because 625,000 of the city’s 1.1 million uninsured would be able to secure coverage.
Weiner also reported that 142,922 city residents who suffer from pre-existing conditions won’t have to worry about buying insurance and that 204,000 businesses with 25 or fewer employees and average wages of $50,000 or less will qualify for tax credits to buy health insurance.
Obama is poised to sign the historic health-care legislation today and then travel to the heartland to sell his controversial plan after a brutal partisan battle to squeak it through Congress.
Now, the sales job begins for the president, who is expected to push for the plan in the coming months — especially in the crucial window before the fall midterm elections, in which many Democrats are now considered vulnerable thanks to their “yes” votes for the bill.
A majority of Americans have a dim view of the sweeping reform passed by the House, saying it gives Washington too much clout and won’t do much to reduce their own health care costs or federal deficits, according to a new poll released yesterday.
A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, conducted before the vote, found that 59 percent opposed the bill, and 39 percent favored it.
In addition, 56 percent said the bill gives the government too much involvement in health care; 28 percent said it gives the government the proper role and 16 percent said it leaves Washington with an inadequate role.
Additional reporting by Maggie Haberman