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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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Majority
Leader Bill DeWeese |
  
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DeWeese commends governor on keeping health agency open
HARRISBURG, July 9 – House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese welcomes this week’s decision by Gov. Ed Rendell to keep the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council operating through executive order.
"The council is known nationally for its pioneering work in the analysis and investigation of health-care costs and medical care issues. The House Democratic Caucus position remains firm that these workers should be retained on the job," said DeWeese, D-Greene/Fayette/Washington.
DeWeese wrote to the governor last week, reminding him that the agency was extended via executive order in 2003, and urging him to take immediate action to maintain the functions of the important agency.
"I’m glad the governor made such a quick decision this week," he said.
On June 30, the House voted unanimously for H.B. 2648, to extend PHC4 for 10 years until Dec. 31, 2018.
"Up until the last minute, the House Democratic Caucus remained hopeful that Senate Republican leadership would allow an up-or-down vote on the extension without linking it to any unrelated issue. Unfortunately, they chose politics over good public policy and didn’t take the necessary action to let the PHC4 bill stand on its own merits. We will engage our Senate Republican colleagues on this issue again in the fall and we hope they also will address the extension of health care to the uninsured," DeWeese said.
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CONTACT: Tom Andrews Press Secretary |