Back to Headlines Print Version Buzz Up Stumble it Tweet it Facebook LinkedIn

US Sen Wyden Lashes Out At Finance Committee Health Bill

By Martin Vaughan, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Democratic U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, aimed stinging criticism Thursday at the health overhaul bill being considered by the committee.

"This legislation has been stripped of the principles of consumer choice and competition," Wyden said in a speech at the Tax Policy Center, a Washington non- partisan think tank.

"The Congress is about to throw hundreds of billions of dollars of additional money into a broken system," Wyden said. He said the Finance Committee bill would help lobbyists more than average Americans.

Wyden is the author of separate, bipartisan legislation with Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, that would cover the uninsured and create a new tax deduction for Americans to purchase health insurance in the private market.

Under the bill from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., people whose employers offered affordable insurance coverage wouldn't be eligible for tax credits to purchase coverage through a new state insurance exchange.

Baucus is seeking to line up votes for his health legislation for a final committee vote next week. The bill must be merged with a bill from the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, before it is brought to the Senate floor, likely this month.

Liberal Democrats on the Finance Committee also have criticized the plan because it lacks a public, government-based insurance option.

Baucus crafted his plan with an eye toward winning support from some Senate Republicans. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Me., is the only Republican senator believed likely to embrace the Baucus legislation.

-By Martin Vaughan, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9244; martin.vaughan@ dowjones.com

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires
  10-01-091227ET
  Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.