Published: November 05, 2009 10:05 pm      

Hill still weighing health care bill; house could vote Saturday

Ninth District Rep. Baron Hill is asking for comments and concerns from constituents regarding House Resolution 3962 — The Affordable Health Care for America Act.

The bill was unveiled Thursday by House Democratic leadership. It’s a product of three separate bills passed by the House energy and commerce, education and labor and ways and means committees.

“I am not entirely sure when the House will vote on H.R. 3962,” Hill, a Democrat, stated in a news release. “But I am still preparing as if the vote will be called soon.”

House Democratic leaders are pushing for the legislation to be voted on Saturday.

Hill said he’s reviewed the bill line-by-line in preparation for the vote. He’s not stated how he will vote on the measure, but said Thursday some of the language of the plan is encouraging as it relates to the 9th District.

“According to these estimates, the bill will allow several thousand small businesses in Southern Indiana to obtain affordable health care coverage for their employees, and provide tax credits to help reduce health insurance costs for a similarly significant number,” Hill said.

President Barack Obama said Congress is closer to passing health care reform than ever before Thursday. That announcement came after the AARP and the American Medical Association endorsed the House plan.

“Now that the doctors and medical professionals of America are standing with us, now that the organizations charged with looking out for the interests of seniors are standing with us, we are even closer,” Obama said.

Opponents of the bill continue to warn of government controlled health care and the expense it could entail.

“Baron Hill’s support for a massive health care takeover would be nothing more than a spineless attempt to appease his party bosses,” stated National Republican Congressional Committee Communications Director Ken Spain in a news release.

He called possible Hill support of the bill “a shameful tactic that will lead to higher costs for a struggling middle class, force Medicare cuts for seniors and mandate that Indiana taxpayers comply with a partisan ploy for more government control.”

But Hill said small business workers are paying more for premiums than those of large firms.

“I have heard from numerous Southern Indiana small business owners who want to provide coverage for their employees and cannot afford to, or who currently provide coverage but cannot sustain the rate at which the premiums are so rapidly increasing,” he said.

Reports from the Associated Press contributed to this story.