Enzi Finds Plenty of Room for Improvement in Bill that Costs $1 Trillion, Leaves 36 million Uninsured

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today said he would use the Committee process to highlight and correct the numerous flaws in the Kennedy health care bill, which preliminary analysis shows will cost more than $1 trillion, leave about 36-37 million Americans without coverage, and force 10 million more to lose their current health insurance.

“The misguided policies in the bill will cause approximately 10 million Americans who have health insurance from their employer to lose that coverage,” Enzi said. “President Obama promised that under his health reform proposal, every American who had coverage that they liked could keep it. This bill fails to deliver on that promise.

“With a bill that spends one trillion dollars and leaves 36 million Americans uninsured, I assume that we all agree that this bill provides plenty of room for improvement. That is why I intend to use the opportunity presented by this mark up to highlight the many mistakes in this bill and try my best to correct them.”

In its recent preliminary analysis, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said that the Kennedy Affordable Health Choices Act would spend $1 trillion dollars to cover only 16 million individuals, leaving 36-37 million Americans uninsured, and force 10 million Americans to lose their current health insurance.

“I agree with President Obama, that expanding coverage should not interfere with the health insurance of Americans who like what they have. I also support the President’s commitment to fully pay for health reform,” said Enzi, the Senate’s only accountant. “Unfortunately this bill fails on both of these counts.”

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