Washington — Rep. Jim Marshall, D-Macon, who faced criticism from liberal groups over his misgivings over the so-called public option government-run insurance program, was one of 39 Democrats to vote Saturday evening against the historic health care overhaul at the top of the Obama administration’s domestic agenda.
Marshall “opposes the bill and believes this is the wrong approach to health care reform,” Marshall spokesman Doug Moore said after the Saturday night vote.
Since this summer’s often heated town hall debates, Marshall consistently questioned whether such an option would fully address cost overruns and fraud. He prefers directing congressional efforts toward addressing the high cost of health care and steering the nation to a system in which consumers have greater control of their own health care choices.
Sanford Bishop
Marshall’s opposition puts him in the company of a small club of Democrats, many of them conservative Blue Dogs who hail from conservative Southern and Midwestern districts, freshmen who narrowly won their 2008 elections and those who will likely face tough 2010 re-election bids.
The Blue Dogs “have emerged as the pivotal group on health care reform because of the fact that the process has worked out in such a way that there’s not much cooperation between party lines,” Randall Strahan, a political science professor at Emory University in Atlanta, said last month.
Like Marshall, fellow Blue Dog Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Albany, had expressed concerns about whether the Obama administration-backed plan provided enough protection for rural hospitals and health care providers.
There were concerns other Blue Dogs were not allayed by tweaks to the bill designed to tackle such problems as additional money and incentives to help rural hospitals cover their costs and recruit talented medical professionals.
But by the weekend vote, Bishop was satisfied and voted to support the measure.
“During my town hall meetings on health insurance reform last August, I said that we have a moral obligation to ensure that all Americans receive the health care they need to live healthy and productive lives,” Bishop said.
“I have long been concerned about the poor health indicators among my constituents, and this evening I cast a vote that I believe will have a significant impact on improving the lives of Southwest Georgians now and into the future.”
Still, both lawmakers spent political capital by taking their respective stances.
Over the summer, as the discourse over health care reform grew increasingly heated, both Marshall and Bishop found themselves in an awkward position politically.
Both hail from politically diverse regions with significant numbers of senior citizens, members of the military, urban enclaves and those from rural communities.
Bishop co-chaired Barack Obama’s Georgia election campaign. Marshall, who for years was considered the most politically vulnerable Democrat in the House, did not endorse Obama as a candidate.
Meanwhile, the state’s Republican members were unified in the rejection of the Democrat health care reform push.
“Americans wanted change, but this is not the change they wanted,” said Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Grantville. “The people in my district overwhelmingly oppose this government takeover of health care. They want targeted changes that will bring down health care costs, protect people with pre-existing conditions and keep families from going bankrupt due to illness. We can do those things without a government takeover of health care. We can do those things without mandates, fines and higher taxes.”
The Senate hopes to act by the end of the year, and if successful, the two chambers would then craft a compromise that would need approval of both houses. The House vote came with a warning: Getting enough votes later this year or early in 2010 will not be easy.
And convincing Democrats like Marshall who said “the American health care’s third-party payment system suffers from Soviet-style inefficiencies,” to vote for any future health care reform compromise may prove difficult.
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