Letter Writer Nails It on Matheson’s Health Care Vote
Rep. Jim Matheson’s self-justifying rationale for voting against health care reform fails before this question: What would have happened had his view prevailed? (“Health reform needs more work,” Opinion, April 4.) There is no evidence that a better bill could have emerged at any time in the next several years. Republicans have stood silent for decades in face of the need for health care reform. They did nothing but obscure and obstruct during the entire past year. Democrats were exhausted by this fight. Had they lost, they would have had neither the energy nor the influence for another try.
Hence, Matheson’s vote essentially said that he preferred to settle for nothing — to return to the status quo for an indeterminate time, each year adding to the disintegration of our health care system and to the burden on American families. He preferred guaranteed increases in insurance costs and family misery to the likelihood that this bill will start us in a more positive direction. No bill of this size and complexity could be perfect, but this one can be adjusted and improved with experience, and it will be far less costly than the do-nothing alternative Matheson evidently preferred.
Douglas Johnstone
Sandy