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Alaska’s delegation wary of House health care bill

by Leyla Santiago
Sunday, November 8, 2009

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Alaska's senators are ready to tackle the health care reform bill headed to them from the U.S. House of Representatives, but some of Alaska's top leaders aren’t quite ready to applaud Saturday’s vote.

The president calls it historic. Alaska's representative calls it shameful. And one Alaska senator isn't ready to call it a step in the right direction just yet.

“I think there is some concern if it’s deficit-neutral and the expense of it,” said Sen. Mark Begich. “And that's still to be determined.”

In a written statement, Rep. Don Young criticizes the plan as neither accessible nor affordable.

“I am scared and disappointed by the wheeling and dealing and political tactics that led to the passage of this bill,” Young said.

“You always worry that there might be wheeling and dealing going on,” Begich said. “Don obviously has a lot more knowledge of that, because he's on the House side.”

Young says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “chose to feed her ego, by pushing through one of the largest taxes on the American people.”

Begich says the bill has not found a lot of favor from the Senate.

“The thing that you'll see in the Senate, we won't just have one day of debate, we will have many days of public debate,” Begich said. “I'm going to have some very hard focused questions, making sure it protects seniors, making sure that we can compete and get competitive pricing for our prescription drugs for our seniors.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski was not available for interviews Sunday, but in the past she has said she does not support the public option presented in any of the health care bills in the House or Senate -- including the one passed Saturday by the House.

Contact Leyla Santiago at lsantiago@ktuu.com