Gov. O’Malley: Health Care Reform ‘Good for States’; Will Mean Paying More to Save in Long Run

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: With Republican governors warning that President Obama’s health care plan will foist new costs on states, a leading Democratic governor is pushing back, arguing that health care reform will help states shoulder growing health costs in the long run.

“In fact, if we do not change the status quo, there is no way that any state in the union is going to be able to afford the constantly escalating 7, 8, 9 percent annual increases,” Gov. Martin O’Malley, D-Md., said today on ABCNews.com’s “Top Line.”

“We do not mind, for example — I would not mind as governor as I looked at the status quo, which would add $3.6 billion to our expenses for health care both on the Medicaid and employer’s side, if instead we only had to pay a billion additional over the next five years. One would have to say that that’s a step in the right direction. So really a lot of this is about cost avoidance.”

“We have to pay a little bit more in order to realize the long-term savings and bring down the cost curve. And that’s what the Obama administration is doing, and I’m very much encouraged by the direction in which it’s going,” O’Malley said.

“The truth of the matter is that both the Senate versions and the House versions are actually moving to something that’s good for states,” he added.

He also said “thank God” President Obama pressed to pass the stimulus package, arguing that the current unemployment race would be much worse without it.

“None of us likes 9.8 percent unemployment, but I will betcha that it would have been more like 16 or 17 percent had President Obama not acted,” he said. “So we are far better off because of the recovery and reinvestment dollars, despite all the people saying that we could not possibly spend it or apply it the right way. We are applying it. And the other good news is these dollars are creating new jobs that are actually going to benefit the economy for many years into the future, and it absolutely had to be done otherwise we would have headed into a depression.”

O’Malley, the vice chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, also said he would “guarantee” Democratic victories in the 2009 gubernatorial contests in Virginia and New Jersey. He said he doesn’t believe national Democrats or President Obama will be a drag on Democrats running for governor in 2009 or 2010.

“I don’t think it’s a matter of running away [from] or running to — I think it’s a matter of governing well,” O’Malley said. “People in their chief executives, especially when we’re facing unemployment and home disclosures, they want men and women that are going to make the tough decisions regardless of politics. And so governing well is really the best political advice that any of us incumbents had, and it’s the best advice that we can give to those that are challenging.”

ClickHERE tosee the full interview with Gov. Martin O’Malley.

We also chatted with veteran GOP pollster Frank Luntz about his new book, “What Americans Really Want…Really.” Watch that interview HERE.

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Tags: Care, good, Health, Long, mean, more, Paying, Reform, save, States, Will

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