Senators will choke on a government-run health care plan, Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., predicts.

And that's about has far as his optimism reaches.

He's anything but hopeful the health care bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives Nov. 7, will survive its route through the Senate.

"It'll be interesting to see what the Senate comes up with, where the rules of the game are different," Cole said in a telephone interview Friday, when he revealed the basis behind his "no" vote during a visit to Oklahoma. "You start looking around, and there are a lot of Democrats in the Senate that are going to gag over the House bill."

Cole, along with the other four Oklahoma members of the House, voted against the bill. Only one Republican voted yea, and the nays carried 39 Democrats.

Cole said he couldn't support legislation drenched in partisan politics, explaining that in his opinion, the bill lacks "common sense" reforms like tort reform, which he deemed a "no-brainer," and the establishment of tax deductions for individual purchasers.

While Cole said it's not debatable that health care reform is imminent, controversy strikes over the cost and which type of reforms, like tort reform, which in the Republicans' health care dialogue would lower health care costs by controlling malpractice insurance spending.

Cole attributes Democratic opposition to tort reform to the party's ties to the trial bar, which he said supplies a significant amount of the party's campaign contributions, proof, he said, that Democrats are catering to party politics in this legislation.

Cole said Republicans were excluded from negotiations for the bill, which made gaining his support impossible.

"When you don't try to negotiate with the other side, then there's no inclination to vote for your bill," said Cole, who after the clamor at several town halls, said he can't succumb to supporting legislation his constituents are against. "You can't run a partisan process where you write the bill behind closed doors, and then say, 'Well, we want you to vote for that.' Why in the world would I do that?"

He said the current plan will bankrupt the system, adding that the plan currently headlined would involve withdrawing a $1 trillion from Medicare and raising $7 billion in taxes, which he said either will be raised through taxpayers' pocketbooks or skimmed from budget items like transportation and education.

"Very little of anything in this bill has anything to do with cost containment," Cole said. "It's not deficit neutral, it doesn't cover everyone, and it doesn't deal with real issues because they're not popular with certain groups."

And as politicos continue to battle out health care revisions, which wage on fundamental, philosophical differences -- big government versus small government -- with many pushing for a government-run system, Cole has hope for a grand bipartisan compromise.

"There's frankly a lot of disagreement over whether or not we should have a government-run system. I don't think it's the best, but it's what they want," he said. "There's a lot of people hoping this will involve into a single-payer system. But I don't think we could change all that. We already have this private system."

He said middle ground could be struck if Democrats are willing to move changes through smaller bills and approach the reforms step-by-step. He suggested dealing with the high risk pools, as the bill dealt with preexisting conditions, where insurance companies agreed to alter their business model to ease their stance on pre-existing conditions when establishing premiums.

"Those are easy, common things that won't bankrupt the system," Cole said.



EDITOR'S NOTE: While a student at the University of Oklahoma, Nanette Light interned for Cole in his Washington office during the summer of 2007.





Box:



Cole's Health Care Remedy



· More competition -- Currently, in the national market for health insurance, buyers can only purchase within their state. Cole said more competition would create lower prices.

· Go small -- Cole recommends allowing smaller companies to combine in pools for negotiating health insurance spending, prices so they can buy insurance premiums at a price parallel to the government and larger companies.

· Slow it down -- Reforms should be phased in, rather than rushed through at once.

· Buy before tax -- Cole said single-purchasers are plagued by a range of taxes before their funds are available for health care. He said health insurance should be purchased with pre-tax dollars to cut cost.