The Woeful Health Care Voting Record of Senate Republicans [View All]

[Time for change]

The health care crisis in our country has been seriously exacerbated by the Bush administration in conjunction with our Republican Congress in the last several years. There were 46 million uninsured Americans in 2004 (the latest year for which data is available), up 6 million from 2000. Almost twice that many Americans were uninsured at some time between 2003 and 2004. This lack of health insurance is often fatal, as it is estimated that it results in an excess of 18,000 deaths per year, just in the 25-64 year age group alone. In addition, under the Bush administration we experienced the first increase in infant mortality rate in 40 years, rising 3% between 2001 and 2002 (As far as I can tell, the Bush administration stopped reporting infant mortality rate in 2002). Furthermore, lack of health insurance results in approximately two million bankruptcies in the United States annually.

The health care industry in our country is represented by very wealthy and powerful interests, and lawmakers who are friendly to those interests receive lots of money from them. On the other hand, lawmakers who act and vote favorably for the health and welfare of the average American citizen generally lose out on campaign contributions from the health care industry, thereby putting themselves at an electoral disadvantage.

In order to help equalize this situation, the American Public Health Association (APHA) rates Congresspersons on their health care votes in order to provide ordinary citizens with a good idea of how much their elected representatives are concerned about their health. APHA is an Association (which I belonged to for several years) of individuals and organizations that works to improve the public's health and to achieve equity in health status for all. They promote the scientific and professional foundation of public health practice and policy, advocate the conditions for a healthy global society, emphasize prevention and enhance the ability of members to promote and protect environmental and community health.

The purpose of this post is to compare the APHA ratings of Senators (and non-Senators where applicable) who are running in the closest Senate races this fall. Before listing the ratings, I’ll first briefly describe the major categories of legislation on which APHA has rated them.


Provision of benefits

Though passage of a national health insurance plan is not a possibility with our current Republican Congress and President, there have been a number of measures voted on that would have at least provided some relief for the most vulnerable American health consumers. These included a vote to expand enrollment for the Medicare prescription drug program, votes to provide prescription drug benefits for Medicare, and a vote to limit the self-employment tax deduction. The first three of these (all rejected) would have provided much needed benefits to persons who can ill afford the skyrocketing costs of today’s drugs, and the last noted bill (passed) reduced health insurance related tax breaks for those who most need it (Hey, I thought Republicans were against taxes?).


Breaks to the pharmaceutical industry that result in increased drug prices

Two measures that would have made prescription drugs more affordable to average Americans but would have cut into the profits of the pharmaceutical industry were an amendment that would have allowed the federal government to negotiate with drug companies in determining the prices of drugs used in the Medicare program, and a bill that would have facilitated the ability of Americans to obtain drugs from Canada. Both were rejected. The excuse that the pharmaceutical industry uses to disallow the obtaining of drugs from Canada is that drugs from other countries are not safe. I can’t imagine what excuse they use to argue that the federal government shouldn’t be allowed to negotiate drug prices with them.


Tobacco restrictions

Approximately 400,000 annual deaths in the United States are attributed to cigarette smoking – far more deaths than all other drugs (the use or sale of which leads to hundreds of thousands of imprisonments in the United States) combined. Yet, unlike numerous other far less addicting and dangerous drugs, cigarette smoking is legal. A bill that would have led to some control by the Food and Drug Administration over the sale of cigarettes in the United States was successfully filibustered by Republican Senators.


So-called “tort reform”

With widespread corporate deregulation by our Republican Congresses and pResident over the last several years, one of the few remaining means of protection for average Americans against corporate malfeasance is our courts. Yet even that protection is too much for today’s Republican Party, and health care is no exception. The Democrats managed to filibuster a bill that would have limited medical liability lawsuits to $250,000, and they were able to pass with some Republican help a bill that allowed patients to sue their HMOs.


The APHA ratings of Senators who are facing apparently close races this fall

Current Republican held seats

OH: DeWine (R) – 0%; Brown (D) – 100%
PA: Santorum (R) – 0%
MT: Burns (R) – 0%
MO: Talent (R) – 0%
AZ: Kyle (R) – 0%
VA: Allen (R) – 0%
RI: Chafee (R) – 75%
TN: Ford (D) – 86%

Current Democrat held seats

NJ: Menendez (D) – 89%
FL: B Nelson (D) – 100%; Harris (R) – 0%
MN: M Kennedy (R) – 0%


Conclusion

Today’s Republican Party, with few exceptions, votes for the interests of the wealthy and the powerful, against the interests of the vast majority of American citizens, but they maintain their political viability with millions of dollars in campaign contributions, donated by the wealthy interests that they spend their careers protecting.

The issue of health care is no exception to this rule. If the Republicans lose six of the eight seats listed above (not unlikely, the way things are shaping up), and the Democrats hang on to their seats, the Democrats will take control of the Senate. If voters vote based on how well their candidates represent their health care interests (and the same can be said about any number of other issues as well) they will win the Senate this fall.