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Boyd will vote yes on health-care bill
Posted 3/19/2010 4:00 PM EDT on tallahassee.com
U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd, who voted against national health care last November, said today he will vote for the new bill when it comes to the House floor.
The Monticello Democrat said he studied the revised bill and the Congressional Budget Office report on its costs and benefits. He said "it's not perfect" but that the package meets the four criteria he set forth in a series of 16 meetings across the 2nd Congressional District last summer.
Boyd said the overall plan will preserve patient choice of insurance plans and doctors, will improve access to coverage for about 50 million Americans and will be "deficit-neutral." The fourth criteria, slowing the rise of medical costs, was the main thing that caused him to vote against the bill a few months ago, but Boyd said he thinks the new version will do that.
Boyd said 194,000 households in North Florida will be eligible to get coverage through insurance exchanges. He said small-business tax credits will benefit 15,400 businesses in his district, which runs from the Suwannee-Columbia County line to the southeastern corner of Okaloosa County.
"My decision has been based from the very beginning on the substance of this policy," said Boyd. "It's been my belief that good policy equals good politics."
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