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Hinkle blasts governor over
health care remarks
Rep.
Bill Hinkle, ranking Republican on the House Health Care
Committee, took issue with remarks the governor made in last night’s
“state of the state” address about the direction of health care reform.
“The governor is mistaken about where she wants to take health care
reform in this state,” said Hinkle, R-Cle Elum. “It sounds like she’s
pushing socialized medicine and wanting to insert more government
control into the process.”
The governor said she
believes health care should be provided as a basic right to everyone and
that government should step up to provide it.
“I continue to reject the idea that government should assume greater
control over families’ health care,” said Hinkle. “We’ve got to put
health care decisions back in the hands of consumers and provide a
viable health care market that brings doctors and health insurance
providers back to our state to compete for our health care dollars. This
will give patients more choices and bring costs down.”
The governor also said that she was planning to provide health care to
every child by 2010.
“Giving all our children health care is a great idea,” Hinkle said. “But
where’s the money to fund this going to come from? If we stay the course
and move to a ‘pay or play’ health care system, costs will only continue
to rise. We’ve got to control costs by reforming our system. Then we
might have a chance to provide health care for our children.”
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For more information, contact:
John Handy, Assistant
Communications Director - (360) 786-5758
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