Romney and Travaglini sound warnings on bill
As House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi forged ahead with his healthcare plan yesterday, two other key players in the debate expressed concern about the direction lawmakers were heading.
Governor Mitt Romney warned that a component of the House proposal calling for a payroll tax on certain employers to help fund expanded health coverage was a ''nonstarter."
''We do not need and should not add an additional burden on businesses in Massachusetts," he said at a State House press conference. ''If we add to that burden an additional cost . . . we'd be going in the wrong direction, and it would harm job creation in the Commonwealth."
But Romney stopped short of promising to veto a payroll tax. ''I don't want, at this point, to be issuing ultimatums," he said.
Senate President Robert E. Travaglini, meanwhile, urged lawmakers yesterday to proceed cautiously in considering what he called ''the most significant piece of healthcare reform we have ever seen."
''There's no reason to rush this debate," he said in a speech to the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. ''Go easy here. Remember your mission."
Travaglini, too, has expressed reservations about taxing business to pay for healthcare.
Romney and Travaglini spoke as the House opened its long-awaited debate on healthcare changes, arguably the biggest task lawmakers and the governor will tackle this legislative session.
House leaders pledged a vote on the bill by the end of this week. They must move quickly, they say, out of a moral obligation to insure more residents and because of a threat of losing millions of dollars in federal Medicaid funding.
''All of this compels us to act, and we must act," DiMasi said in a speech to the House chamber.
Yesterday, Romney gently pointed out that the House was the last key player to detail a health plan.
''We have a tight timeframe," Romney said. ''The Senate filed its bill in the spring. The administration filed our bill in the spring.
''People haven't been sitting on the beach all summer long," he said. ''We've been looking at these matters and there's been a lot of give and take."
Romney is advocating quick passage of a bill, saying a delay would jeopardize a $385 million annual Medicaid payment from the federal government.
The state must make progress in insuring more residents to continue getting the money.
''That's why we're moving, I think, as rapidly as we are," he said. ''Let's not make perfection the enemy of the good. Let's get something out there that moves us forward."
Some political considerations are also in play. Romney may forgo running for reelection to run for president in 2008, and some observers believe he's eager to sign a healthcare bill that he can tout on the campaign trail.
DiMasi, who has been criticized for the pace of work in the House, could also benefit politically from swift enactment of a comprehensive bill.
Romney was asked yesterday whether the healthcare debate would determine an announcement on his political future.
''I don't know," he said. ''I have given myself the luxury of being able to put off the decision as long as possible."
Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com. Material from State House News Service was used in this report. 