Photo courtesy of the office of Rep. Arcuri

by PATRICK AMBROSIO

Rep. Michael Arcuri is one of the newest members of the Democratic majority in Congress and a strong advocate for health care reform. He said prescribing a cure for the nation’s health care problems will take partisan collaboration.

“This is not a problem that is going to be fixed by the Democrats. This is not a problem that is going to be fixed by the Republicans. This problem is only going to be fixed by both sides working together,” Arcuri said. He represents New York’s 24th congressional district and is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition of moderate and conservative Democrats.

Arcuri said that stem cell research is one major issue that will require bipartisan cooperation. Arcuri was one of 217 co-sponsors of The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007, which was passed by the House on Jan. 11.

The bill authorizes the use of stem cell lines generated from embryos that would otherwise be discarded by fertility clinics. However, Arcuri says it is doubtful that President Bush, who vetoed a similar bill last year, will sign the bill into law.

“Realistically speaking, he vetoed the last one, and I don’t know that anything has changed with him,” Arcuri said.

Arcuri said he strongly supports the bill because of the possible benefits of stem cell research, including the prospect of making the medical advances that could result in cures for diseases such as diabetes.

“I think the bill is far too important to let it just die on the vine, even if the president vetoes it,” Arcuri said. “I suspect that if he does, we’ll continue to look at it, and we’ll continue to try to make changes to it in such a way that we can get a good viable bill that works.”

While the House has already addressed stem cell research this term, Arcuri still hopes to tackle what he believes is the most important health care issue: ensuring that all Americans have access to quality affordable health care.

Arcuri, who favored the Iraq War Resolution which the House passed in February opposing the president’s plan to increase troops in Iraq, believes that the ongoing war only serves to highlight the problem with America’s health care system. He pointed out that some U.S. soldiers will return to the country and join the 47 million Americans without health insurance.

“Our soldiers are dying in Iraq in the hopes that they will establish a democracy that will have health care for all its citizens,” Arcuri said. “Then they come back to this country, and when they get out of the military, if they don’t have a job, they may not have quality affordable health care for themselves.”

Arcuri voted in favor of the Wounded Warrior Assistance Act, which the House passed on March 28. The bill would improve access to quality health care for veterans who were wounded in combat.

During his congressional campaign, Arcuri promised to make several health care issues priorities in Congress, including legalizing the import of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada. However, Arcuri acknowledges that this would only be a temporary fix for the problem.

“Importing them from Canada doesn’t address the problem, even though it gets us cheaper drugs in this country,” Arcuri said. “What is important is bringing the cost of the drugs down in a number of different ways.”

Arcuri said one of the main ways to accomplish this is to give the U.S. government the power to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies, which is how the Canadian government lowered the cost of their prescription drugs.

Arcuri also campaigned on expanding the patient’s bill of rights in order to take health care decision-making out of the hands of insurance companies and expand tax credits for small businesses that provide health insurance.

“Almost all of the business people I meet tell me that rising health care costs are one of the biggest obstacles to growing their businesses,” Arcuri said in a statement on his campaign Web site. “We will never be able to expand jobs and economic development in upstate New York unless we do something about health care costs.”