West Virginia Senate Finance Committee Kills Key Component of Health Reform

by: The Rufus

Tue Feb 22, 2011 at 22:52:23 PM EST

According to the Charleston Gazette the Senate Finance Committee has killed a key component to the the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in West Virginia.  The article says the bill lost on a voice vote lead by Republicans but since there are only three Republicans on the committee according to the legislative website there had to be Democrats that voted it down as well.  

I attended a public hearing in Fairmont on the health insurance exchange and it was stated if the State does not operate the exchange we will miss out on tens of millions of federal grant dollars and defer to the federal government the decisions on how to operate an exchange in West Virginia.  The speaker said hundreds of thousands of West Virginians would be covered by the exchange.  The exchange makes coverage available to individuals and small businesses and provides tax subsidies for expensive private insurance.  WV health advocacy groups like the AARP, WVAHC, and labor unions have made the exchange a priority on their legislative agendas.  

How can Democrats turn their backs on implementing legislation that expands coverage to so many West Virginians?  Not sure if something like this can be amended into another bill or revived somehow but something needs to be done about this.

Here is the Gazette article:
http://sundaygazettemail.com/N...

Here are the members of the Senate Finance Committee:
http://www.legis.state.wv.us/c...