Area Reps Weigh in on Health Care Vote ROCHESTER, NY (WXXI) - Members of the House of Representatives are expected to vote Saturday on the much-debated and anticipated health care reform bill.

Congressman Eric Massa, a Southern Tier Democrat, says his preference for single-payer care, and his opposition to the current bill has not changed.

"At the highest level this bill will enshrine in law, monopolistic powers of the private health insurance industry. Period. There's really no other way to look at it."

Massa's not alone in his opposition to the bill.

Buffalo-area Republican Congressman Christopher Lee, representing a district around Buffalo, says the health care reform bill currently on the table is fiscally irresponsible.

"It is reckless. It is 2,000 pages which at the end of the day creates either 111 new agencies, bureaucracies, commissions. It is so far reaching ... estimates from the [the Congressional Budget Office] are we will lose millions of jobs from the private sector."

But one local representative is a big booster of the bill. Fairport Democrat Louise Slaughter says the legislation would end discrimination by health care companies against women. And she says in her district alone, it would provide coverage for 30-thousand uninsured residents.

Syracuse-area Democrat Dan Maffei is undecided about his vote, according to a spokesperson.
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