Snowe presses for cost estimates before vote on health bill

AUGUSTA — It's more important to be right than to be quick when it comes to crafting health care legislation, U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said Thursday.

Especially when one-sixth of the country's economy is at stake.

"We can't afford to get this wrong," she said. "We should have the final (cost) before we take the final vote. I don't even understand how you can resist that notion and dismiss it because it would take two weeks more."

Snowe serves on the Senate Finance Committee which is working on legislation aimed at overhauling the country's health care system.

She was frustrated with colleagues pushing to complete work on the bill before the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan staff charged with calculating the costs of legislation, has a chance to look at its final, specific language, because it would take a couple of additional weeks.

"What's going on in two weeks time that we can't do this?" Snowe said. "It truly is a labyrinthine task, and therefore I think we need to take extraordinary steps. We were required to fully engage in a painstakingly, methodical and meticulous process. I think it's fundamental and it's precisely what the American people care about."

She said people are increasingly concerned about accruing more national debt and are leery of more costly legislation on the heels of the hundreds of billions already spent on bank and auto bailouts and the $787 billion economic stimulus package enacted earlier this year.

On Wednesday, the committee voted 12-11 against an amendment that would have required the bill, with a full cost estimate, to be posted online for 72 hours before a final committee vote.  

"I'm very much concerned with having the right price tag on this legislation and not finding out otherwise after the vote," she said. "I really think (not having the exact costs) is an invitation to trouble and it can result in enormous miscalculations."

But Snowe was happy with some of the changes that have been incorporated into the bill, including additional subsidies for low- and middle-income families for purchasing health insurance.

"We've expanded support to the average American," she said. "Frankly, we should probably even go further — one of my concerns is making sure these plans are extremely affordable."

Amendments dealing with the expansion of the Medicaid system and medical malpractice lawsuits are still being considered by the committee, Snowe said.

She wasn't sure whether the committee would vote out a bill by the end of the week.

"I hope that doesn't happen, because I want to get that (Congressional Budget Office) score," she said.

rmetzler@sunjournal.com