Where do our congressional representatives stand on healthcare reform?
While all three of the lawmakers who represent Southeastern North Carolina in Washington, D.C., agree the country’s health-care system needs to be changed to make health insurance more accessible and affordable, they vary in how strongly they support the leading reform proposals being debated in Congress. There are several bills on the issue being worked on in various Congressional committees. Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., voted July 15 for the first bill that cleared a committee, while Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., vote against the legislation. Both are members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, where the bill split along party lines. The legislation included a public health insurance option, which, as a government-sponsored plan to compete against private insurers, is one of the more controversial pieces of the reform debate as well as a penalty for employers with more than 25 workers who do not provide health insurance. Burr favors an alternative proposal givin
