Rep. Jim Matheson, D-UT, announced today he plans to vote against the health care reform bill his party leaders hope to pass this weekend, saying the legislation would increase costs and fail to produce needed changes.Matheson said in a release that he wants changes to the current health care system, but the bill currently being considered in the U.S. House is not "secure, stable and affordable."
"Putting millions of additional people into a broken system will not work," he said in the release, citing a report from the Congressional Budget Office that predicts the proposed bill would increase federal outlays for health care and the federal budgetary commitment to health care.
"The path we are on is not sustainable," he said. "Without real reform, we will continue to strain family budgets, threaten the survival of small businesses and explode our national deficits."
Matheson proposed five major amendments to the bill today before the House Rules Committee, but none were likely to pass, and Democratic leaders have said they anticipate passing the bill anyway, as early as Saturday.
Matheson opposed another health care bill earlier this year, and was later named Co-Chair of the Blue Dogs, a group of fiscally conservative congressional Democrats.
Democratic leaders in the House have said they expect the bill to pass in a close vote, without every Democrat on board.