Matheson to oppose his party's health care reform bill

WASHINGTON — After high pressure from all sides for weeks, Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, finally said Saturday that he will vote against his party's health care reform bill.

"I am saddened that the yearlong debate on health reform has resulted in legislation that is too expensive, contains too many special deals, does not contain health care costs and will result in increases in health insurance premiums," he said.

"Therefore I will vote against the legislation," he added. The House is scheduled to vote on the bill Sunday.

That leaves him among only a handful of moderate Democrats who are opposing his party and Democratic President Barack Obama. It may cause problems with his party, but it also may preserve his job in conservative Utah.

"I do think that a majority of people in my district have a lot of problems with this bill," he told the Deseret News. And, he said, "I heard from thousands and thousands of constituents on this."

But he said that is not why he decided to oppose the bill. He said it simply did not measure up to what he believes is needed — and that saddens him.

"I am rather sad that we are not moving forward on the type of reform that I would like to see enacted," he said.

And what he wanted, he said, was to control rising health care costs; increase quality and value; and improve access to health care and to insurance coverage.

Instead, he said he sees the final bill as "the wrong kind of reform — reform which increases health care costs," and he said that will "leave our nation worse off."

Matheson said many of those same things earlier this year when he also opposed the original bill in the House. But he said then that he would keep an open mind as Congress continued to work on the bill.

Being officially undecided for the final vote brought plenty of pressure and left his office deluged with phone calls and messages from both sides — and the site of some protests.

Matheson said most of the loud pressure actually came from conservatives opposing the bill — and little actually came from his party leaders.

Republicans could not quit their loud protests on Saturday, even after Matheson decided to join them and oppose the bill. The National Republican Congressional Committee still put out a press release complaining that it took Matheson too long to make his decision.