Pete Stark, congressman who reshaped health care, dies at 88

[brooklynite]

AP News

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Former California Rep. Fortney “Pete” Stark Jr., an influential Democrat whose legislative work helped reshape America’s health care system, has died. He was 88.

Stark’s family said he died Friday at his home in Maryland. They did not disclose a cause of death.

During his 40-year career in Congress representing the East Bay, Stark helped craft the Affordable Care Act, the signature policy change of the Obama administration. He also created the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, the 1986 law best known as COBRA, which allows workers to stay on their employer’s health insurance plan after they leave a job as long as they pay the full premium.

He also pushed for a law that requires hospitals that participate in Medicare or Medicaid to treat anyone seeking emergency treatment, regardless of their insurance status.

Also the only self-avowed atheist in the US Congress.

[Hoyt]

1. Laws that Stark pushed ended a lot of kickbacks and other schemes in healthcare.

COBRA, ACA, etc., helped a lot of people by filling in some gaps while we try to figure out what to do with healthcare.

RIP

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Link to the WaPo obit:

Obituaries

Pete Stark, fiery California congressman and advocate of universal health care, dies at 88

By Matt Schudel
Jan. 25, 2020 at 7:33 p.m. EST

Fortney H. “Pete” Stark Jr., an outspoken California Democrat who, during his 40 years in the House of Representatives, led efforts to expand health insurance but whose brash comments sometimes earned rebukes from colleagues and political opponents, died Jan. 24 at his home in Harwood, Md. He was 88.

The cause was leukemia, said his son, Fortney H. “Fish” Stark III.

Mr. Stark had an independent streak, a caustic tongue and a willingness to ruffle feathers. He challenged colleagues to fistfights on the House floor and in 2007 became the first member of Congress to declare that he was an atheist.

He also had an abiding interest in health care and played a key role in establishing the COBRA program, which became law in 1986 and allows people to stay on their employers’ insurance after leaving a job.

{snip}

He once called a Republican colleague a “fruitcake” and a “little wimp.” Another Republican congressman, J.C. Watts, a onetime college football star from Oklahoma, had to be restrained after Mr. Stark charged him with having several children out of wedlock.

In 2010, Mr. Stark’s Democratic colleagues stepped in to prevent him from succeeding Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee when Rangel faced questions about ethics. Mr. Stark, who was next in line to Rangel, was considered too much of a loose cannon.

Earlier that year, at a town hall meeting, Mr. Stark confronted a member of a militia movement advocating stricter border enforcement, saying, “Who are you going to kill today?”

When the man said, “Don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining,” Mr. Stark replied: “I wouldn’t dignify you by peeing on your leg. It wouldn’t be worth wasting the urine.”

{snip}

Matt Schudel has been an obituary writer at The Washington Post since 2004. He previously worked for publications in Washington, New York, North Carolina and Florida. Follow https://twitter.com/MattSchudel