Congressman Anthony Weiner stopped by a Glendale Property Owners Association meeting last Thursday, mainly to update his constituents about the health care bill the House of Representatives has been working on for some time now.

“For government that is the hardest part, is that we are spending ourselves out of house and home to pay for health care,” he said. “Right now, we pay about 20 percent of our entire gross domestic product in our country in health care. That's three times more than any other country.”

Several people gasped when Weiner went on to say that if nothing is done, the figure would be at 80 percent by the year 2050.

The House’s plan, he explained, involves grouping together the 30 million or so uninsured Americans into a big exchange and comparing them side by side, allowing market forces to make companies compete with each other. Those people will have the option to buy into a program that’s comparable to Medicare, a government program where money isn’t taken for profit or overhead.

“Right now, health insurance companies don't do anything,” said Weiner. “They don't do anything. They take your money, give it to doctors and take about 20 percent for themselves. We're going to collect taxes the way we always have and give them directly to doctors.” He added, “Just take an existing program that people understand and gradually grow it over the course of time.”

He admitted the cost of Medicare is going up significantly, but for the right reasons; the life expectancy rate has gone up by 10 years and there are more older people than ever before.

Weiner also expressed a desire to lower the age of Medicare to 55 and allow people ages 21 to 26 into the program because those are the toughest age groups to cover.

He said the plan, however, is at a standstill because although it passed in the House, the Senate doesn’t have the 60 votes necessary to move forward and the Senate’s version bears too much cost to New York without any subsidy.

The meeting concluded on a somewhat hopeful note, with Weiner indicating the groups would continue working for a more acceptable plan.

“If you read a newspaper that says Congress gives up without new healthcare this year, bad. You're going to pay more in taxes this year to the state, and we're going to have to fix it eventually because we can't let this keep going up and up and up,” said Weiner. “I hope we'll be able to come up with a solution that works."