Politics of health care reform plan

Listening sessions for Northeast Wisconsin Congressmen Steven Kagen, D-8th Dist., and Tom Petri, R-6th Dist., have been seeing large and boisterous crowds recently. And even with all the spirited debate both welcome the attention to try and get their political messages out about health care reform.

“What people have to understand is the legislative process is a long discussion an open and transparent discussion and that's the benefit of having listening sessions,” said Kagen.

“Well I hope no one will go along with a plan just because someone in their party was urging them to vote for or against,” said Petri.

“So everyone has to understand this is a very serious conversation it is the most important conversation our country will have this century,” said Kagen.

“Experience tells us we really should do a do-diligence of what we're doing,” said Petri.

The latest House bill from Democrats under review is more than 1,000 pages and continues to undergo changes.

“We went through it page by page,” said Kagen.

FOX 11’s Mark Leland asked Petri if he had a chance to read through the entire bill. The congressman admitted he had not.

Kagen: We have to get the politics out of this discussion let's talk about the policy, put people first rather than corporate profits on Wall Street.

Democrats like Kagen support government involvement to ensure the reform happens, while Republicans like Petri say limited government support is a better solution.

“To have a system for people with pre-existing symptoms to get into the system is something we do need to work on,” said Petri. “Most experts tell us greatest savings in health care can be achieved by people taking better care of their own health.”

“Now nothing in Congress will ever be perfect we can't make everybody happy, you've seen that in my listening sessions,” said Kagen.

“I think there's a general lack of confidence,” said Petri.

Both Congressmen believe the revisions on the bill will continue for months to come. Kagen is hopeful something will pass to improve health care for his constituents by the end of the year, while Petri says the changes are very unsettling to his constituents.