Babies Love Politicians

Young Physicians and Their Families - Meeting with Rep. Holden

Meeting Highlights:

• Our group relayed key concerns to Rep. Holden and urged him to vote against the health care conference bill when it is brought to the House floor.
• Rep. Holden plans to vote against the health care conference bill.
• Rep. Holden believes necessary health reform should consist of incremental changes to our system such as allowing the purchase of insurance across state lines.
• At the beginning of the health debate, Rep. Holden received a phone call from prior PA Governor Leader urging Holden to vote no on H.R. 3962. Governor Leader (who founded and operates nursing care centers) urged him to vote no because H.R. 3962 would drastically diminish quality of health care and would result in devastating cuts to nursing homes and hospitals.
• Rep. Holden supports tort reform and believes it is not included in either the House or Senate bill because of the influence of the trial attorney lobby on the Democratic Party.
• Rep. Holden does not agree with the closed-door health care negotiations taking place or the payments made to individual states for votes in the Senate (Nebraska and Louisiana).
• Rep. Holden called on the AMA for political help. The AMA will not help him because he voted against H.R. 3962. We assured him the AMA's stance does not represent physicians in our group.
• Rep. Holden believes federal funding of abortion will be the main hold-up to reaching a compromise House/Senate bill.
• If Rep. Holden were Speaker of the House, he would not touch health care and he would not touch cap and trade during this economic downturn.
• Irene at SEIU won't even look at Rep. Holden. (credit to whoever knows who Irene is.)
• Rep. Holden encouraged us to stay active and make our voices heard.