Bob Corker calls for openness in health reform process

May 25--Related Article

Health care bill pushed through House would leave 23 million more uninsured

Read more

Sen. Bob Corker's criticism this week of how the Senate is working on health care reform is making the rounds in liberal media and was referenced in a sharp letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell by a Tennessee Democrat.

The Huffington Post on Tuesday quoted Corker about the handpicked group of Republican senators working behind closed doors on their version of the Obamacare repeal bill. The House passed a bill early this month.

The Tennessee senator and former Chattanooga mayor told reporters the ordinary process that helps shape legislation, such as public participation and media analysis, is missing here, according to The Huffington Post.

"It's a very awkward process at best," Corker said. "There are no experts. There's no actuarials. Typically, in a hearing, you'd have people coming in and you'd also have the media opining about if a hearing took place, and X came in and made comments.

"Those are all informative, right?" he continued. "This process, not being that manner, can create a lot of blind spots. To me, I'd rather have the input as we move along than a bill be produced and all of a sudden it's the product and then everybody opines."

The Huffington Post story said Corker was asked if he'd raised his concerns with party leaders and he replied, "Oh, of course."

"The Rachel Maddow Show's" Maddow Blog picked up on Corker's comments, and Tennessee U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, a Nashville Democrat, referred to them in his letter Tuesday to McConnell.

Cooper also criticized the lack of public access, referring to a "secret letter" he said Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, sent to certain "stakeholders" seeking input on the Senate bill.

"No hearings, no experts, no real debate?" Cooper wrote to McConnell, a Kentucky Republican. "And you are deliberately bypassing the Senate HELP (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, chaired by Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander) with a special committee that you appointed that is comprised of 13 white male Republicans? Is this any way to run the U.S. Senate? No. This is an abomination."

Alexander said Wednesday he's not feeling left out. He said in an email the Senate working group actually includes every Republican senator and all may attend meetings of any smaller groups.

"It's important to get every voice heard in this discussion: Man or woman, rural, urban, west, or east -- we've got a big complicated country and healthcare affects every American in a very personal way," Alexander wrote.

A spokeswoman in his office pointed out Alexander's committee isn't involved because the House ACA repeal bill was passed as a budget reconciliation measure. That puts it in the Senate budget and finance committees.

"However, as chairman of the Senate health committee, Sen. Alexander has been focused on helping Tennesseans trapped in the collapsing individual market and held a hearing in February where Tennessee Insurance Commissioner [Julie Mix] McPeak served as one of the witnesses. Republicans in the Senate are at work right now developing proposals to rescue these Tennesseans and millions of other Americans -- and Sen. Alexander has encouraged Senate Democrats to do the same."

Corker told the Times Free Press in an email he has attended several of the health care reform meetings.

"There's no question that we all want to resolve the issues that are driving up health care costs, limiting choices, and creating uncertainty in the individual market," Corker said.

"How we get there matters, and while I very much appreciate the focus on this important issue, I do wish we could move to a process that includes public hearings and allows for a greater amount of input from diverse stakeholders."

Contact staff writer Judy Walton at [email protected] or 423-757-6416.

___

(c)2017 the Chattanooga Times/Free Press (Chattanooga, Tenn.)

Visit the Chattanooga Times/Free Press (Chattanooga, Tenn.) at www.timesfreepress.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.