Rep. Treat Coverage of Lobby Activities in DC
Treat lobbies for health-care reform at White House
Capital Weekly, By John Hale
Oct 20, 2009
Rep. Sharon Treat, D-Hallowell, at the Statehouse Oct. 19 following her recent trip to Washington, D.C.
Augusta — Rep. Sharon Treat, D-Hallowell, spent two days recently in Washington, D.C, with 27 other state and municipal leaders to lobby President Obama and members of Congress for health-care reform.
Treat helped organize the trip.
Wednesday, Oct. 14, Treat and other members of the delegation went to the White House to meet with Obama, but instead spent three hours with top staff of the president. The president was tied up in a long meeting developing strategy on the war in Afghanistan.
“We feel we know a lot because our states have expanded health care on our own,” said Treat, who is House chairperson of the Insurance and Financial Services Committee in the Maine Legislature.
“We realize at this point we need the federal government to step in and adjust this on a federal level.”
She said since June a group of 40 legislators from around the country have been talking once a week about Congress’ progress on health care.
One thousand legislators signed a letter to President Obama and congressional leaders urging them to approve a health-care reform plan with a public option. Treat said Maine had the third-highest number of legislators sign the letter.
The letter reads, in part: “Our disjointed health-care system has formed a choke-hold on our economy, limiting job growth and economic development. We cannot fix the economy without fixing health care.”
And the National Conference of State Legislatures endorsed a public option. More than three-quarters of the state legislatures endorsed the plan.
Treat said that during the Oct. 14 meeting, Obama’s staff, including top advisor David Axelrod, “were very confident that something will pass, and something comprehensive.”
“They really wanted to learn from us,” she said.
While in Washington, Treat also met with Congressman Michael Michaud and with the chief of staff for Sen. Olympia Snowe.
“Rep. Michaud is very concerned about the Medicare reimbursement amount. It’s important that we don’t get stuck with a big bill,” Treat said.
“The other message we sent very strongly was that a public option is necessary to make sure that health care works. It was our goal to make sure that the White House doesn’t back down on that.”
Treat said Sen. Snowe backs a trigger mechanism that would set off a public option.
Amendments that have been offered would allow states to opt out of the public option. Other amendments would allow states to opt into a public option.
Treat said there are currently three House bills and two Senate bills on health-care reform.
“They’re merging them into one House bill and one Senate bill. Then they have to merge those two into a single bill in a conference committee. There’s still plenty of time and plenty of opportunity to reach common ground on what a public option might look like,” she said.
Treat said she gave Snowe’s staff “a big thank-you for supporting the Senate Finance Committee bill.”
“That vote kept health-care reform alive,” said Treat. “I urged her [Snowe] to keep an open mind on a public option and to keep working on making sure the plan is affordable.”
Treat said her group included legislators from Guam, Alaska and Puerto Rico who made the long trip to the nation’s capital. She paid her own way to make the trip.
“We have a lot of practical experience trying to do health-care reform. The Dirigo Health program in Maine is seen as a model for national health-care reform,” Treat said. “We want to make sure Congress learns from both our mistakes and our best practices.”
On a personal level, Treat said she had never before been inside the White House.
“It was very exciting to be there,” she said. “It was really substantive. I think they really are listening to us. My bottom line is — Does it work?”
Treat is an attorney and executive director of the National Legislative Association on Prescription Drug Prices.
