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JAMESTOWN – Democratic Congressional candidate Tracy Mitrano (D – Penn Yan) was in Jamestown on Friday to announce a series of upcoming listening sessions and to also point out that residents in the 23rd Congressional District and neighboring counties will see more than $500,000 in medical debt disappear, thanks to the help of two physicians – including one who lives in Chautauqua County.

Jamestown area physician Dr. Ralph Walton listens as Democratic candidate for congress Tracy Mitrano tears up a medical bill after announcing an effort to whip out $500,000 of medical debt for residents in and near the New York 23rd Congressional District.

Mitrano’s announcement came during a press conference at the James Prendergast Library late Friday morning to highlight a unique partnership helping district residents out from under crushing medical debt.

Mitrano said that Working with the non profit group RIP Medical Debt, Chautauqua County physician Ralph Walton and Tompkins County physician Dr. Marguerite Uphoff announced that they and other area doctors would help eliminate more than $500,000 of medical debt.

“$5,000 of the contributions of Dr. Walton and Dr. Uphoff have extinguished nearly a half-a-million dollars of medical debt. With their donations we were able to expire $500,000 of commodified medical debt for the people in the 23rd district and surrounding counties,” Mitrano said.

Dr. Walton joined Mitrano and said he donated his own personal money to help remove the debt because he wanted to help struggling families while also drawing attention to the country’s ongoing healthcare crisis…. adding tht the United States might have the most expensive healthcare system in the world, but that doesn’t make it the best.

“We have the most expensive healthcare system in the world. Tragically, that does not translate into the best healthcare. We are currently 28th when it comes to longevity. In other words, 27 nations have better longevity statistics than the United States. We’re 31st when it comes to infant mortality. This absolutely should not be happening,” Dr. Walton said.

Mitrano said that the indebtedness many Americans face due to healthcare is something current Congressman Tom Reed (R-Corning) refuses to do anything about. She illustrated her point by saying that Reed for years was connected to a medial debt collection agency and also voted against the affordable care act and other types of legislation that would ease the debt burden.

“Tom Reed’s company profited from our nation’s most vulnerable people – people who are up to their ears, if not drowning, in medical debt. And why is that a conflict of interest? Over 70 times in the almost 10 years he has represented this district he has voted against affordable healthcare coming from, and still have an interest in, medical debt collection, “Mitrano said. “He consistently demonstrates that his greatest concern is with himself with no recognition of the real need of the people in this district. Enough is enough. It’s time to get Tom Reed out of office.”

Also as part of the press conference, Mitrano announced she is launching a five-city healthcare listening tour beginning today in Dunkirk, with a second meeting scheduled on Tuesday from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown, 1255 Prendergast Avenue.

Upon the conclusion of the five-day healthcare listening tour, Mitrano will issue a plan to address healthcare costs and work on a non-partisan basis to bring about a real solution to the crisis.

Mitrano is seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination as a candidate in the 2020 election against Tom Reed, who’s also already announced his intention to run for reelection. Mitrano also ran as the Democratic candidate in the 2018 race and lost to Reed by a margin of 54 to 44 percent of the the vote.

So far only one other Democrat has come forward to seek the party’s nomination as candidate in this year’s congressional race and that is Dr. Scott Noren of Ithaca.

Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning)

CORNING – Congressman Tom Reed (R-Corning, NY 23) is criticizing his opponent for supporting Medicare for All healthcare, also known as Single Payer Healthcare.

On Wednesday Reed said his opponent in the 2018 mid-term election, Tracy Mitrano (D-Penn Yann), supports Medicare for All – something he and his campaign calls an ‘extreme liberal position.’

“Whatever label they’re trying to put onto it, it is essentially a socialistic, single-payer healthcare system that – to me, when you talk about Medicare for All – threatens seniors and results in destabilizing Medicare even further,” Reed said. “We all know I am committed to solving the Medicare problem and making sure that Medicare is here for generations. And given the recent reports that continue to show that Medicare is in an insolvent, bankrupt position, expanding Medicare to everyone in the country, to me, further jeopardizes the stability of that program and really could threaten seniors.”

“Tracy Mitrano will say and do anything to get elected,” added Abbey Daugherty, communications director for Tom Reed for Congress in a press release sent out on Oct. 11. “But she can’t hide her extreme liberal positions from voters. Tracy’s extreme agenda would bankrupt Medicare, threatening our seniors and literally cost taxpayers trillions.”

Despite Reed labeling Medicare for All as an extreme liberal policy, a recent poll by Reuters found that 70 percent of Americans would support it. WRFA asked Reed if the proposal, and proponents like Mitrano, deserved the “Extreme Liberal” label if it has garnered such widespread and mainstream approval.

“It’s concerning [Reuters] has been able to potentially message this in a way without actually attacking the substance of the proposal. Once seniors are aware that what they are proposing will cost $32 trillion, it will jeopardize their access to physicians, that it will destroy Medicare as we know it for themselves, those poll numbers are going to drastically change in my opinion,” Reed said.

The $32 trillion dollar number Reed is citing covers a ten-year period and comes from a study released in July by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Virginia, a university-based libertarian policy center.

Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning, NY 23) during a town hall meetings on April 14, 2018,  in Gerry NY.

Reed also said that Medicare for All would be a socialistic program, and the government shouldn’t be involved with paying for and administering healthcare plans for all Americans.

Some have argued that the government already has other socialized programs in place – most notably public education – which all Americans benefit from. However, Reed said our country’s history of providing all residents with a basic education is a good example of an expensive program ruined by bureaucracy.

“We all support education, but if you look at the results of public education and the amount of money that we are spending, I think we need to get a creative new way rather than relying on government to solve these problems in their entirety,” Reed said, adding, “If you look at the results of our educational system, I think many people would agree that the investment leads to a poor return on those taxpayer dollars across the spectrum. So using education as kind of a poster child to say this is why we need government to run healthcare, I would just argue that we can do better than that.”

Earlier this year, Reed said he would be in favor discussing several reform proposals, including raising or eliminating the payroll tax cap on Medicare and upping the age eligibility for the program – meaning more people would have to rely on private insurance companies longer into their life before signing on to the government-subsidized healthcare plan.

“But bottom line: if folks want to deny the existence of the problem that the insolvency of Social Security and Medicare represent, that’s their choice,” Reed said in June. “But I’m willing to accept what I think is a foregone conclusion that if we do nothing, Social Security and Medicare will collapse and it will be devastating for millions of Americans that are caught in that situation.”

Mitrano has a different take.

Tracy Mitrano

“We cannot afford to have a president in this McCarthy-like era call these programs and these ideas – as Reed does also – ‘socialist’ or ‘like Venezuela.’ Those are scare tactics. What we need is ideas, thought, conversations and economists talking about it. We need people sharing their stories of what their healthcare experience is like to be in medical debt and we have the family business of Mr. Reed be in charge of collecting it. There’s something wrong in this district when we allow that kind of representative to be dictating healthcare, when he has that kind of family interest in the outcome of it,” Mitrano told WRFA in an interview that will be broadcast later this month.

Mitrano is referencing Reed’s family’s involvement with RR Resource Recovery – a family-owned business providing account and creditor management services.  According to a 2016 article in the Buffalo News, Reed listed himself as partial owner of RR Resource Recovery on his 2012 financial disclosure form. His wife was also listed as partial owner of the firm on the congressman’s financial-disclosure forms from 2013 to 2017. She reportedly drew between $15,000 and $50,000 in salary for each of those five years. Reed’s 2017 financial disclosure form also says his spouse is the partial owner of Twin Tiers Medical Billing, described as his spouse’s partially-owned business providing account billing services for customers in Corning, NY. No income was claimed for that business.

WRFA will feature an election preview with interviews from both Reed and Mitrano later this month on Oct. 25 and Nov. 1 on our Community Matters program (5 p.m.  Thursday, Noon Sundays on WRFA).

Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning)

WASHINGTON – The first major federal tax overhaul in more than three decades has been approved by congress and now awaits the signature of the president.

After clearing the House and Senate, the GOP’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is on its way to the President’s desk to await his signature.

Republicans steamrolled opposition from Democrats to pass a bill that slashes taxes for corporations and the wealthy while giving mixed, temporary tax relief to middle-class Americans.

The House approved the measure by 224-201, passing it for the second time in two days after a procedural foul-up forced another vote on Wednesday. The Republican-led Senate had passed it 51-48 in the early hours of Wednesday.

Congressman Tom Reed (R-Corning, NY-23), a member of the tax writing Ways and Means Committee, said the legislation ensures historic tax cuts for hardworking Americans and the launch of a new era of economic opportunity, growth and job creation.

He also said that while the tax bill is written to offer temporary tax relief, he believes the cuts will be extended before sun-setting in eight years.

“There are sun-setting provisions that hit corporations, businesses, and individuals,” Reed said during a conference call with regional media on Wednesday morning. “Mostly on the corporations and business side we are dealing with the expense provisions being temporary. Obviously this was driven by DC bureaucrats. I’m very confident that when we get to that eight-year window for those sunset provisions that they will be dealt with by Congress appropriately and responsibly and no one is going to, I believe, allow those sunsets to occur.”

Another criticism of the tax bill is that it removes the enrollment mandate for the Affordable Care Act. Many fear that as a result, health insurance rates will go up because fewer healthier people would be part of the insurance pool.

Ian Golden

Democratic Congressional Candidate Ian Golden of Ithaca, who hopes to challenge Reed in next November’s general election, explains.

“For those of us that do have to buy insurance, whether – speaking for myself – as a small business owner or for my family, that is going to mean that my premiums are going to be going up that much more to counter-balance the healthier people who are not being forced to buy into the plan,” Golden said during a phone interview with WRFA on Wednesday.

Reed said he supports the elimination of the mandate, but also added there are other mechanisms included in the final tax reform plan to provide help for those who are unable to afford health insurance payments.

“I think it gives the people the ability to choose where they want to buy their health insurance. And remember we did not repeal the premium tax credit assistance program that is out there. If people engage in the process – they’ll do what they need to do to protect their families and themselves –  using the tax credits to get help to get health insurance is still on the books and is available,” Reed countered.

Eddie Sundquist

Another potential opponent of Reed, Jamestown attorney Eddie Sundquist, sent a media release on Wednedsay calling the tax reform plan a tax scam that will give corporations and the GOP’s wealthiest donors significant tax breaks at the expense of New York families.

Sundquist said the GOP’s elimination of the State and Local Tax (SALT) deductions means that middle-class families in New York will have to pay federal taxes on income that went to state and local governments, effectively a double tax.

The final plan limits deductions of state and local income and property taxes, known as SALT, to $10,000.

“I am incredibly disappointed that Tom Reed would vote for a bill that would do more harm to his constituents than good,” Sundquist said. “While he claims this will help families in our district, elimination of deductions like the state and local tax deductions will do the opposite – and the cuts to entitlements like Medicare & Medicaid will be devastating.”

Reed has said that provision will not affect most of the residents in his district because very few pay over $10,000 in annual state and local taxes. However, critics say it will create a chilling effect in New York State, because those with high enough incomes who would be impacted may decide to move out of the state to save money, forcing the remaining residents to cover the lost tax income in Albany.

Democratic-leaning states, including New York, are expected to take legal action to challenge the SALT cap and even though such lawsuits would face long odds, they could help galvanize Democrats for next year’s mid-term election.

Sundquist also said Congressman Reed is a direct beneficiary of a newly added provision that gives a tax break to those who own LLCs, something that will personally benefit him. Reed and his wife take income from two LLCs: R&R Properties, LLC, and R&R Resource Recovery, LLC – a medical collections business.

“One of the few people who comes out ahead in this deal is Tom Reed himself. It’s alarming to hear that Reed’s yes vote comes after the GOP added a special provision to cut taxes for those who own LLCs. Reed and his family own two, and this provision would lower taxes on the income his family takes from them,” the Jamestown Democrat said.

Sundquist said that as a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, Reed was directly involved in determining the provisions that ended up in the final bill and he should be held accountable for the long-term consequences the plan will have on the public.

Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning)

WASHINGTON – Senate Republican leaders are trotting out their new, but reeling, health care bill and angling toward a showdown vote next week amid signs that they have lots of work ahead to win over GOP lawmakers or face a resounding failure.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., planned to present the revamped measure rolling back much of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act to GOP senators Thursday.

He’s aiming at a do-or-die vote next week on whether to begin debating the bill – a roll call for which he’s got little to no margin for error. Since Democrats uniformly oppose the effort, McConnell needs the votes of 50 of the 52 GOP senators to prevail.

Chautauqua County’s representative in Congress, Corning Republican Tom Reed, said he’s not going to predict how the vote will pan out in the Senate. During his weekly conference call with regional media, he did say that as Republicans in Congress work to address costly health insurance in the country by replacing the Affordable Care Act with the American Health Care Act, but he’s hoping lawmakers will also continue to identify ways to improve health care for Americans.

“Right now we’re having primarily the focus on health insurance and what the American Health Care Act is going to do to stabilize these Obamacare insurance market places,” Reed said. “But there are opportunities, I truly believe, that when we get to the issue of health care and improving health care in America and how we develop policies that reward quality and do it in the most cost-efficient manner, those conversations are something we can have at the same time when it comes to dealing with health insurance in the present manner.”

Reed also responded to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s recent criticism of the GOP health insurance plan, which would significantly cut Medicaid funding across the country, some of which is used to combat the ongoing Opioid epidemic.  Reed said that both the House and the Senate have included funding to address the opioid crisis in their respective healthcare bills, adding that the governor is using the crisis to cover up his unwillingness to make tough decisions in the state budget.

“I think what the governor is doing is he’s just so afraid to make the hard decisions in order to control the cost of Medicaid and make it sustainable in regards to not being placed on the backs of hard working Americans who are paying the bill through their tax bills in the state of New York and to try to work together, I hope, long-term, to make those hard decisions to get Medicaid in a more efficient, effective manner,” Reed said. “So from my perspective, what the governor is doing is he is just engaging in the practice we see out of typical politicians who don’t want to engage in the hard issues.”

Governor Cuomo says that the funding proposed by the Republicans in Congress to fight the opioid addiction is not even close to the amount that would be needed to properly address the crisis. He made his comments in an op-ed piece that appeared earlier this week in the New York Daily News.

The House plans to vote on the American Health Care Act Thursday, and in advance on Wednesday, President Trump was expected to continue pushing for support of what would be a significant achievement for his young presidency.

But underscoring the bill’s uncertain fate, a senior administration official said that 20 to 25 House Republicans remained opposed or undecided. That’s a grave figure since united Democratic opposition means the measure crashes if 22 GOP lawmakers vote “no.”

Chautauqua County’s representative in Congress says he’s on board with the GOP proposed American Health Care Act and thinks it will have enough votes to pass the House. Tom Reed (R-Corning, NY 23) told reporters during a Tuesday conference call that he believes there will be enough votes to pass the bill, despite reports that some GOP lawmakers may be on the fence.

“I believe they’re moving in the right direction to support this legislation. They see the improvements that have been made and I believe they also recognize the promise that’s been campaigned upon for year,” Reed said. “it’s no secret across America that we as a Republican conference, to a T, support the repeal of Obamacare and moving forward with replacement policies that are going to empower people and patients and doctors. So this is the first step in that process and that promise they recognize and is where we’ll come down on Thursday.”

Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning)

Late Monday night House leaders put forward a series of final amendments to the bill, which Reed said strengthens the GOP plan. Reed also said he was especially in favor of the Collins Amendment (or the Faso-Collins Amendment). The name(s) comes from Reps. Chris Collins and John Faso, upstate Republicans who are behind this push to shift the local cost of Medicaid from Upstate and Long-Island counties to the state.

“The one I like best is the inclusion of that relief directly to our property tax payers across the district, when it comes to that county tax levy burden that medicaid puts on them from Albany. So from my perspective that was the top priority as we went through this process,” Reed said.

According to state officials, the cost of such a shift would be $2.3 billion in lost Medicaid payments from local governments, if and when it takes effect in 2020, assuming of course the legislation passes both houses of Congress in its current form.

As a result, state leaders say the amendment will have a severe negative effect on local hospitals and nursing homes.

Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday said 2.7 million New Yorkers would face substantial loss in their current health care coverage while the quality and availability of health services across the state would be jeopardized. The reduction in Medicaid spending will have a significant impact on funding for nursing homes, home care, and hospitals, putting 7 million New Yorkers at risk according to the Democratic governor.

COUNTY LAWMAKERS TO SUPPORT COLLINS AMENDMENT

The Collins Amendment is also apparently good news to a group of local lawmakers. During Wednesday’s Chautauqua County Legislature meeting, a motion of support for the amendment will be up for a vote. The motion has 10 sponsors, enough to ensure its approval.

When added to the $4.5 billion cost of the ACHA over the next four years, Cuomo indicated that the total cost to the State would rise to $6.9 billion.

Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning)

WASHINGTON – Congressman Tom Reed (R-Corning, NY 23) says he’s fully-on board with the new American Health Care Act, which was introduced on Monday by Republican leaders in Congress as an eventual replacement to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Proposal has also received the backing of President Donald Trump.

During a conference call with media on Tuesday, Reed said that he supports the plan because it includes several reforms and carry-overs from ACA that he feels are important in the context of repeal and replace.

“Things like the reforms on the preexisting conditions and allowing children to be carried on their parent’s policy up to the age of 26 – it’s clear in the proposed legislation that they will be moving forward,” Reed said. “We are going to repeal the excessive taxes that come with the Affordable Care Act and we are going to replace them with refundable tax credits that are available to lower income folks to allow them to purchase health insurance on the open market.”

Reed said the plan will also protect employer-sponsored healthcare, which he said has been a rich tradition in America and which millions have relied on to ensure they get healthcare. Reed said that residents who also rely on Medicaid for medical coverage won’t have it pulled out from underneath them.

According to Reed, there are about 70,000 residents in the 23rd Congressional District who currently rely on Medicaid, which is about 10 percent of his total constituency.

Reed also said that once finalized and put in place, the new plan will cover more residents in his 23^rd congressional district, than compared to ACA.

“It will be exactly the same as what existing conditions are, because we’re transitioning from the Affordable Care Act, and 2020 appears to be the date that we are transitioning to,” Reed said. “So to answer that immediately, the answer would be ‘none,’ but as we go forward, what we’re hoping is that we are going to have more people having access to health insurance that is going down in cost, and therefore allowing people having access to healthcare at a much greater degree than what we’re hearing across the country.”

TIMELINE FOR FINALIZING, APPROVING, AND IMPLEMENTING REPLACEMENT PLAN

Reed said there will be a three-step process in putting the new plan in place and fully reforming the country’s healthcare system, with the introduction and passage of the replacement package being the first of the three phases.

“The replacement plan is the first legislative vehicle, and it allows the [plan] to go forward with just 51 votes in the Senate. The second phase is what Dr. Tom Price will be doing as our Secretary of Health [in ensuring the new plan is properly applied across the country]. And the Third Phase will be those long-term reforms, where it’s going to take 60 votes in the Senate in order to get to other issues of healthcare reform, particularly when it comes to the healthcare delivery world, where we can get these costs going in the right direction.”

Reed added that he is hopeful the replacement plan will be finalized by congress and signed by the president by the end of March or April.

“A reasonable time-line that I foresee, from my perspective, is this week dealing with the committee process in both Energy and Commerce and the Ways and Means, which I sit on,” Reed said. “Tom Price is already moving his phase as Secretary of Health, and I’m some some proposed actions by him being unfolded and moving forward. And then bringing this legislation to the floor, I imagine we’ll see this come to a floor vote within the next two to four weeks, and that means the Senate will also be brought into the equation. So I anticipate that we would have a final package to the President, hopefully here, in the early Spring.”

The plan has raised concern among both Democratic and some Conservative lawmakers.  Democrats fear it won’t protect lower-income Americans, who don’t make enough money to gain insurance coverage and would have to rely on limited funding from Medicaid.

“President Trump’s health care proposal would force middle class families and seniors to pay more money for less care and leave more people uninsured, all while giving huge tax breaks to insurance companies and the highest wage earners,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said in a statement on Tuesday. “It would cripple state budgets by cutting Medicaid funding and would give health insurance companies a special tax break for CEOs who make over half a million dollars. I will do everything I can to stop this assault on the health and economic security of middle class families and seniors.”

Conservatives feel the proposal doesn’t go far enough in taking government out of the healthcare process and have dubbed the proposed plan “Obomacare Light.”

That’s according to a report this week from the Legislative Gazette. According to supporters, a health insurance exchange would allow individuals and small businesses greater ease in purchasing health insurance plans. The health exchange would extend coverage to more than 1 million uninsured New Yorkers, while lowering costs by 66 percent for individuals and 26 percent for small businesses.

The highly contested exchange did not make it into the final budget, due to reservations by Senate Republicans.

States are mandated to enact a health exchange by 2014 by President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. If a statewide exchange is not in place, the federal government will set one up for the state. The Patient Protection/Affordable Care Act has been under fire lately, with a Supreme Court case questioning the constitutionality of the act. A decision is expected in June.