Rep. Mary Bono Mack: Congress needs to fix health care

Lawmaker seeks to solve plan’s unintended effects

Erica Felci • The Desert Sun • March 30, 2010

Congress will immediately need to deal with the “unintended consequences” of the newly minted health care legislation, Rep. Mary Bono Mack warned on Monday.

“I’m certain this bill has more unintended consequences than any bill I’ve ever seen,” she told The Desert Sun editorial board. “I think, right away, we’re going to be busy with fixing it.”

The Palm Springs Republican voted against the historic reform package, which President Obama signed into law last week.

While saying she supports of some of the reforms — especially providing coverage to patients with pre-existing conditions — Bono Mack expressed concern it would result in cuts to dialysis providers and that the bill has no tort reform.

“Every day that I read something new or hear something new about the bill, there’s less to like,” Bono Mack said.

Health care continues to be one of the top issues raised by local residents.

The legislation aims to extend coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans and cut deficits by $138 billion over 10 years.

Republicans unanimously opposed it.

Many residents have expressed “a lot of frustration” about the legislation and the lack of public hearings as it was crafted, Bono Mack said.

“I don’t believe this bill was a good idea,” she said Monday.

“If you look at what we’ve done in the telecommunications sector, we’ve revolutionized communications. And there’s no reason health care couldn’t be the same way if we did it right and looked at the same model.”

Bono Mack is up for re-election this year, facing challengers in both the June primary and November general election.

During her meeting with the editorial board, she addressed a number of other federal issues:

On national security and foreign wars: “I support Iraq and Afghanistan because I believe that it is in our best interest that we stay in Iraq and Afghanistan right now. I don’t support an arbitrary timeline for withdrawal at all. I think that’s a mistake. I think we’re telegraphing to the enemy what we’re doing and they hunker down and they wait. And they are very patient.”

On the “AIG Effect” that’s created perception problems for conferences in resort destinations: “We’ll continue to try to raise the awareness that going and taking your conference to Baltimore is no different than taking it to Palm Springs. It was just, unfortunately, a bad PR situation. We’re trying to reverse that PR.”

On the partisan politics that have sharply divided Congress: “Perhaps after this break, with everybody being able to sort of take a timeout, people will return and there will be some civility back in the Congress. But right now, I don’t see it. I think that a lot of the trust between the two parties has been damaged and I don’t know what they’ll do to get it back. It’s very frustrating. I hope I’m wrong. I hope it returns.”

Erica Felci is a reporter for The Desert Sun. She can be reached at erica.felci@thedesertsun.com.