Webb at UVa: Health reform 'how not to pass a bill'

The health care reform package approved by Congress is a prime example of “how not to pass a bill,” U.S. Sen. Jim Webb said Wednesday at the University of Virginia.

Webb, a Democrat from Arlington, said President Barack Obama’s administration should have delivered a clear-cut proposal for reforming the health insurance system rather than leaving it up to Congress to come up with the plan.

“It’s an example of how not to pass a bill,” Webb told politics professor Larry J. Sabato’s class of 400 students. “It pains me to say that as a Democrat.”

By leaving the details up to lawmakers, Webb said, five different congressional committees took up the work of hammering out health care reform. This led to widespread confusion, dragged out the legislative process and made it far more difficult to communicate to the American public. Moreover, Webb said, people across the country grew outraged over various parts of the competing versions, many of which never made it into the final package.

As this went on, Webb said, the White House called him and asked that he get on board with health care reform. “I told them, ‘How do you expect me to support a concept that doesn’t even exist yet?’” he said.

In the end, however, Webb voted in favor of the final version of health care reform that aims to expand coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans and improve coverage for far more.

“It’s more good than bad,” he said. “In some cases, it was a close call.”

Webb said he is not happy about the likely cost of the reform package, but he hopes that Democrats and Republicans can come together in the future to find common ground on reducing its price tag.

“This isn’t the end,” Webb said. “It’s the end of the beginning.”

Americans, he said, will eventually support the changes made to the health care system, much as the public now backs other such sweeping programs enacted over the years.

He noted that the GOP firmly opposed the creation of Medicare in the mid-1960s because of its projected cost and because it was viewed as “socialized medicine.” Today, he pointed out, Republicans are vocally criticizing the current health care reform package because it includes cuts to Medicare payments to insurance firms, hospitals, nursing homes and providers.

Sabato said that in the Senate, “There’s no more respected voice on defense or foreign relations” than Webb.

Prior to visiting Sabato’s class, Webb — who serves on the Committee on Foreign Relations and is chairman of the Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs — addressed the Charlottesville Committee on Foreign Relations over lunch at Glenmore Country Club.

Standing next to a map of Asia and the Pacific, Webb told the crowd it is vitally important for the United States to renew its diplomatic, military and economic relations with the region. At least three key countries in East and Southeast Asia, he said, are on the verge of facing major governmental changes. China is more aggressively exerting its interests in the region. And there is a view by many that the United States is pulling back from that part of the world.

“The United States needs to remain as a visible and reliable presence in this region,” Webb said. “We need to be the balancing force.”

Now that health care is passed, Webb said, Congress ought to turn its attention to re-regulating the financial sector to minimize the likelihood of a repeat of the financial collapse of 2008.

Webb also wants the Senate to take up his legislation that would form a commission to examine all aspects of the criminal justice system and make recommendations for reform.

Webb noted that the United States has 5 percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of the world’s imprisoned population. Despite the high incarceration rates, he said, Americans consistently say in surveys that they feel less safe than in years past.