By SCOTT WHIPPLE
Staff Writer

U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, D-5th District, said Friday he is pushing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to include a provision in the health care reform bill compromise. This provision would require members of Congress and their staffs who want to use government health insurance benefits to receive those benefits through the newly formed federal exchange.

The purpose of the exchange is to force private plans to compete with each other to increase competition and lower costs for individuals, families and businesses. This provision was in the U.S. Senate bill, but not the U.S. House bill.

Murphy’s final push comes on the heels of a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday. The poll indicates that public support for health care reform is continuing to decline; 34 percent mostly approve, while 54 percent mostly disapprove, compared to 53 percent approval and 36 percent disapproval Dec. 22.

While 44 percent think the proposed health care changes “go too far,” 29 percent say they do not go “far enough” and 17 percent think the health care changes are “about right.” The “not far enough” and “about right” total 46 percent.

“Support for President Barack Obama’s health care reform continues to decline marginally and now only about one in three voters say they mostly approve of the pending legislation,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “Opposition seems mostly driven by those who think the plan under consideration is too ambitious. The whole health care issue showcases the Grand Canyon-like divide opened up among the electorate.”

Murphy, however, says he has been listening to his constituents, and that “it’s more important than ever for the American people to know that we here in Congress have a real stake in the outcome of this reform effort.”

The Congressman said he could not think of a better way than to put members of Congress who want federal health care in the exchange which, he said, will be a fair marketplace “with lots of options for people in Connecticut and across the country.”

Calling the Congressman’s health care efforts “a ridiculous side show,” state GOP Chairman Chris Healy said, “Chris Murphy cannot hide the fact that this health care bill will destroy Connecticut’s economy, saddle future generations with a trillion dollar debt and limit health care options. He is now creating the fiction that he is helping a terrible idea become acceptable.”

Murphy has been pushing for this idea to be incorporated in the bill since he heard about it from his constituents last August. After hosting public events in his district, meeting with and hearing from constituents last year on health care, Murphy urged House leadership to include the concept in their version of the bill before it was unveiled in late October.

Before the House bill came to the floor for a vote in November, Murphy filed an amendment to require members of Congress who take federal health care to purchase their insurance in the newly created health insurance exchange. It wasn’t adopted in the House bill, but the Senate version included the provision. Now he is taking a last opportunity to persuade negotiators to include this concept in the final health care bill.

“We are closer than ever before in our quest to provide American families and small businesses with comprehensive, affordable health care,” said Murphy.