State-Journal.com - <p>U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler says any proposed health

U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler says any proposed health care reform plan must preserve consumers’ ability to make their own health care choices.

He’s one of the lawmakers debating the issue while Congress is in recess until Sept. 8

The White House and congressional Democrats say their proposal will allow people with insurance to keep their current benefits.

Critics say the plan will lead to government bureaucrats interfering with treatment options.

Some members have held town hall meetings to address the issue, and others are hosting them this month. Meetings often have been stormy - disrupted by both opponents and proponents of health care reform.

The hottest issues include the estimated cost of nearly $1 trillion in 10 years and whether it should include government managed care - the “public option” - for health insurance.

Chandler, the Sixth District Democrat from Versailles, discussed some of the issues in a phone interview Friday with The State Journal.

Will health care reform be signed into law in one form or another by the end of this year?

I certainly hope we have some kind of reform, but I don’t know at this time what form it will take. I am not entirely clear as to whether it will ultimately be signed into law at all. You’ve got so many divergent opinions on the left and right and in both parties.

It’s very much a moving target still.

What are the key ingredients reform must have to pass? What must a bill contain to get your vote?

I think it’s got to take care of the quality of the health care we’ve got now, so we don’t lose any quality. It’s got to maintain the choices for consumers. Hopefully it will preserve the best parts of the system we’ve got right now. I think it needs to protect our small businesses, I think it needs to protect health care in rural communities and it must not be too costly.

Would reform as expected and discussed right now, have any effect on people who already have insurance?

My understanding of the proposals being floated around right now is that they do not affect anyone who has insurance right now in a negative way. Hopefully it would over time either lower the cost of what they’ve got to pay for insurance or at least limit the rise of insurance costs. Insurance costs have been going up dramatically for the last several years, by double digit percentages annually.

Would premiums be lower?

One of the things I want to see happen is some way to cut costs. One of the basic problems we have in this country is that we already spend twice as much as any other country in the world per capita on health care and our health outcomes are not much better - in many instances they’re worse. Clearly there is waste and fraud in the system and inefficiencies. We’ve got to figure out a way to put a system in place to get at some of those inefficiencies. That should allow us to keep the cost down over time.

Is a government plan an essential part of reform for you? Why or why not?

I don’t think the public option has much likelihood to pass right now, that’s one of my concerns. As far as a public option goes, I’m open minded on the subject. I would have to see what kind of proposal we have on a public option. I would have to see if it did those things I mentioned before. It all depends on the details in any kind of plan that was offered.

How will reform be funded? There was talk of a tax on benefits originally, is that still being considered?

I think a tax on benefits is a very bad idea. I don’t think there will be any political support for that at the end of the day. That is a very big problem, how something like this would be funded. I’m worried there are suggestions it may cost north of $1 trillion over 10 years. If it does cost that much, it sort of defeats the purpose of trying to lower the cost curve in the health care system.

What would the implications be if reform fails - political or otherwise?

One of the things I would think is important is that we take our time. One of my big concerns leading into the August break was that we were going too fast. I was very much a proponent for slowing this down so that we have an opportunity to get it right, so we could get all the information we could, so we could get the right results for the people of this country, and not make any mistakes because this is one of most important things we could ever do. I don’t know what would happen if it did fail other than we would just have to keep working, keep plugging away at it.

Everyone is talking about controlling rising cost of health insurance but what about addressing the rising cost of health care itself?

One leads into the other, to a large extent. I think there are a lot of abuses in the health insurance system – we’ve seen profits of health insurance companies rise dramatically. In fact, they’ve risen some 428 percent in the last seven years, which far outstrips the rise in wages people receive.

Plus, when you see the salaries of some of these CEOs in health insurance companies make in many cases, as much as $12 million a year, there is a lot of abuse there which can be taken out of the system. Hopefully it would cut the cost to the average consumer. But at the end of day, we’ve got to address the cost of health care itself, such as the cost of pharmaceuticals – that’s one of the big areas.

Has the disruption of town hall meetings in other districts been the reason you’ve tried to avoid them now?

First of all, I have not really handled my representation of this district with town halls in the past. Were I to do a town hall, it would be a departure from my regular practice. What I usually do is go around to all the counties in the district and meet with as many people individually and in small groups as I possibly can. I’ve done this in this case as well. I’ve met with the health clinic in Frankfort, the health clinic in Stanton, the American Heart Association … just to name a few and not to mention all the calls and letters we get into the office. I’m doing my best to make myself accessible and get around and find out not only what people think but to get the best information on what the solutions would be for health care reform. I’m doing it in such a way that I think avoids what amounts to a publicity stunt that certain people are trying to perform. I don’t think it adds anything to the process to have shouting and hollering at public meetings because the voices of other constituents don’t get heard.

How much time have you spent dispelling rumors and what kind of misunderstandings have people had?

Our office is continually dispelling rumors … about abortion, illegal immigrants and death panels. There’s even confusion about Medicare and Medicaid and the fact they are government programs. Those are several things people are unsure about. I think certain groups have made efforts to intentionally get that disinformation out there. It’s very important that it gets corrected whenever possible. We can’t do the right thing if we can’t get the right information to people. We’re trying to debunk any thought, for instance, there would be any death panels. Nobody’s thought about putting death panels into any legislation and nobody would consider that. It’s quite irresponsible for people to scare the public and that’s what is going on. I think, to a large extent, the insurance companies are behind those efforts.

Anything else you’d like to add?

I just hope we can get health care reform that works to the benefit of all the citizens of this country. We rank 50th according to the CIA World Factbook in life expectancy now. For all of the money we are spending on health care, I am not satisfied with that. We should be first in the world in life expectancy. We’ve got a lot of work to do to make our health care system better and more efficient. I think the public feels that way too. Hopefully we can come to some kind of agreement on how to approach it.