- Share This Post
- submit
- 0
-
Sparkle (0)
This time it was a Republican's turns to discuss health care reform as BlogHer continues it's series of bi-partisan conference calls connecting women with legislators.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers spent time answering questions on everything from pre-existing conditions to her stance on the public option.
You can hear audio of BlogHer's call with McMorris Rodgers here:
Or read the transcript here on BlogHer.com.
-start transcript-
Operator introduction deleted.
Nancy Watzman: Hi. Welcome everyone. I’m Nancy Watzman of the Sunlight Foundation representing Blogher today and their community journalism initiative on healthcare policy.
The Sunlight Foundation is a non-partisan, non-profit dedicated to using the power of the Internet to catalyze greater government openness and transparency.
As CEO Lisa Stone announced, Blogher has been sponsoring a bipartisan series of telephone conference calls to connect women bloggers directly with their legislators.
Today on the call we have Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers. Rodgers is a Republican and represents Washington State’s 5th Congressional District. I’ll turn it over to the congresswoman now.
Cathy McMorris Rodgers: Hello everyone and thanks. I just want to start by thanking Blogher for hosting today’s session. I look forward to this dialogue. I am Cathy McMorris Rodgers. I’m starting my third term in Congress, so I guess I’m about half way through my third term in Congress.
Just by way of background, I do come from Washington State. I was born and raised on the farm, involved in a family owned business for many years, served the State House for ten years. I’m also a mom. I’ve been married just for three years and we have a two year old son, named Cole, so I know firsthand now the challenges of being a working mom.
I today wanted to talk just briefly about the healthcare issue that is currently before Congress, and especially as it relates to women.
I’m not sure how many realize that women really are the chief healthcare officer in many families, responsible for taking children to appointments, addressing the needs of their spouses, aging parents. In fact, it’s estimated that women make 85% of the healthcare decisions in this country.
Women also wear other hats as it relates to healthcare. It’s interesting to note that women are now - women owned businesses are now the fastest growing segment in our economy. And I think that is very exciting.
And in that role, women understand the challenges of providing health insurance to employees. They see first hand how they premium increases every year impact their ability to actually provide healthcare options to their employees.
Women also are working in the healthcare sector. When you look at nurse, 90% of nurses in this country are women, 98% of women are personal and home care aides. Women are also a growing segment of doctors in this country, which is exciting.
So, as we approach the healthcare debate, I think the prospective from women is very important and it’s one that needs to be recognized and I think it ultimately could have one of - be one of the loudest voices in the debate.
As a wife, as a mother, and as a member of Congress, I can tell you that, I’d like to see this healthcare debate focus on aspects of the system that are in true need of reform. And I approach healthcare reform wanting to answer three questions.
And the first question is, will the proposal improve the health of our country? And in that regard, I’d like to see us challenging America to be healthy. As we approach healthcare reform, our legislation, whatever passed Congress, needs to be creating a system that is actually going to provide incentives for each individual to be more responsible for his or her own healthcare and to make healthy decisions in their everyday lifestyle.
Secondly, does the proposal save money? The big challenge for us in healthcare is the rising cost and is the rising cost of healthcare itself, of the healthcare delivery system in America that then results in health insurance premiums increasing, and ultimately then, causes the number of uninsured in this country to increase.
So we need as we approach healthcare reform, to include provisions that are going to help save cost and put Medicare and Medicaid on paths to sustainability. It is -Medicare right now is scheduled to go bankrupt in 2017. We need to be addressing that.
Thirdly, I ask myself the question, does it protect the vulnerable? And I believe that it is very important, as we approach healthcare reform,
