Space talks about health care, energy

One of Athens County's two congressmen was back in his district last week, answering questions on hot topics including the health-care reform bill and so-called "œcap-and-trade" legislation to reduce carbon emissions believed to cause global warming.

The U.S. House is currently in recess, and legislators around the country are out taking the pulse of their constituencies on these and other topics, and trying to rouse either support or opposition to big bills now pending.

As a Democrat, Zack Space of Dover is one of those seeking support for both the health-care reform package and the cap-and-trade legislation.

Space represents Ohio's 18th U.S. House District, including a northern section of Athens County; the rest is in the 6th House District, represented by Belmont County Democrat Charlie Wilson.

In an interview with The Athens NEWS Thursday, Space defended the health-care legislation moving through Congress, which will essentially mandate health insurance coverage for all Americans, and under some of the plans provide a "public-option" government plan for those who can't afford private plans.

He stressed that his support was partly premised on the president's accepting amendments aimed at protecting hospitals in rural areas such as southeast Ohio, and easing the burden on smaller businesses of providing health insurance.

Space said after he and other fiscally conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats met with Obama and other top administration officials, "we ended up getting concessions from (House) leadership on this that I think are important to our district."

These included provisions to allow health-care providers to negotiate reimbursement rates with the "public option" insurer, as they do with private insurers. Originally, the plan would have tied public-option reimbursement rates to Medicare reimbursement rates, which are not negotiated.

Another change secured by the Blue Dogs, according to Space, was raising the cutoff level for the size of business that must provide employees health insurance. Originally the minimum size for a business was an annual payroll level of $100,000; that has now been upped to $500,000.

Space noted that businesses will get a tax break for providing employee insurance plans "“ and will even get the credit if they were already providing such coverage.

"Far more businesses are going to benefit from the bill than are going to be hurt by it," he predicted.

Space said he's seen evidence of "the systematic propaganda campaign designed to shut the system down," which has included groups of protesters showing up at public appearances to shout down supporters of the health-care bill, and false reports spread by opponents that the bill could mandate euthanasia for older people. "This is a concerted effort made at the behest of corporate lobbyists," he alleged.

Recently, opponents of health-care reform have been showing up at congress members' "town-hall meetings" on reform in their districts. According to an Aug. 8 article in the New York Times, "members of Congress have been shouted down, hanged in effigy and taunted by crowds. In several cities, noisy demonstrations have led to fistfights, arrests and hospitalizations."

Space acknowledged, however, that he's hearing many sincere questions and expressions of concern from people in the district, when he holds telephonic town hall meetings "“ essentially huge conference calls in which thousands of people can take part.

One myth he wants to expel about the health-care package, he said, is that it relies on borrowed money. "It's not borrowed money," he insisted. "It's going to be paid for. It's going to be deficit-neutral."

He admitted, however, that "how we're going to pay for it has not yet been established... We're going to have to figure out where to get some revenue."

He predicted some of the money will come through potentially "hundreds of billions of dollars" in cost savings through making health-care delivery more efficient, and reducing incentives for physicians to order as many insurance-billable procedures as possible. Another option he might consider is a tax hike on Americans earning more than $350,000, he said.

"That's a possibility," Space said.

He noted that the American Medical Association has gotten on board with the plan, based partly on the fact that it fixes what he called "the AMA's number-one priority," having to do with Medicaid reimbursement.

Such reimbursement has been kept down in the past by what Space called "unrealistic" caps, which Congress typically had to remove on a regular basis to respond to inflation and cost increases. "We have permanently fixed that in this bill," he said.

The congressman warned, however, that ultimately not reforming the system will cost more than fixing it. Without reform, he said, the cost of health care to individuals and businesses will continue to rise dramatically, hurting the competitiveness of U.S. firms compared to those from countries with more sensible systems. He also noted that the proposed reform will include more emphasis on preventive medicine, to reduce costly later treatment and emergency room visits.

He admitted to being "taken aback" by an assessment earlier this summer from the Congressional Budget Office, suggesting the proposed reform plan will not lower health-care costs in the long run. (Congress whittled down some of the costs after that report.) However, Space said, he believes President Obama is open to compromise on the legislation, as he has already shown in listening to the "Blue Dog" concerns.

"The president is a political realist, and I think he's at heart a moderate," Space said.

A group of health-care reform opponents, led by two unsuccessful candidates for the 18th District congressional seat in the last election, are planning a "tea party" in front of Space's Zanesville office on Aug. 19 "to protest the Obama health-care plan and other issues." It's uncertain if Space will be at the event, which is sponsored by the Licking County Tea Party.

Organizers include Beau Bromberg, a Republican candidate for the 18th District in 2008; Mark Pitrone, a Democratic candidate who lost to Space in the primary for the 18th District seat in 2008; and coach Dave Daubenmire, of Pass the Salt Ministries.



SPACE HAS TAKEN SOME hits in southeast Ohio for his support of the so-called "cap-and-trade" measure, which Wilson voted against. Contrary to some perceptions, he said, the bill is not anti-coal.

"I like to refer to it as an energy bill, because that's what it is," he said. "At its core, this represents an aggressive step in the direction of energy independence "“ something that we should have been doing 30 years ago."

Space called it "an issue of national security" to move the country away from reliance on oil "provided to us by those who mean to do us harm." By moving into alternative-energy sources, he said, the United States can create "literally millions of jobs." The bill also represents "a huge investment in coal," he said, of approximately $180 billion.

"That's a staggering figure," Space added. "I think the bill provides coal with a promising future."