PATIENTS, COLLEAGUES MOURN LOCAL DENTIST
Pine Street partner Bruce Hottum died after scuba diving in English Channel
A partner in the Pine Street Dental practice died after scuba diving at a World War II plane wreck site in the English Channel, British authorities and another member of the practice said Wednesday.
Bruce W. Hottum, 63, a dentist who lived in the Hurley hamlet of Glenford, died last Friday, according to the coroner’s office in Kent, England.
Pine Street Dental partner Charles Fliegler confirmed Hottum’s death to the Freeman Wednesday. The practice also posted about it on Facebook.
“He was an expert in his field who treated his patients with the highest level of care and comfort,” the post said. “He will be sorely missed here .... ”
The United Kingdom’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency said it was contacted Friday afternoon by a dive boat 10 miles east of Ramsgate reporting a diver needing medical aid. A helicopter was dispatched to the boat, and Hottum was flown to a hospital. Police in Kent, on England’s southeast coast, said Hottum was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Neither police nor the Kent coroner’s office provided a possible cause of death. Fliegler said Hottum’s family flew to England to retrieve his remains and was awaiting autopsy results.
Fliegler said Hottum was expected back at the practice this past Monday and that family and friends learned of his death over the weekend. He said he was not aware of any underlying medical conditions that might have contributed.
Fliegler said Hottum
Hottum was “a good friend ... an excellent dentist, caring to his patients ... caring to the community.” — Pine Street Dental partner Charles Fliegler
The result frustrated other GOP senators, some of whom expressed disbelief that their colleagues would flip-flop on legislation they had voted for only two years ago and long promised to voters. Of the current Republican senators, only moderate Susan Collins of Maine opposed the 2015 repeal bill.
“Make no mistake: Today’s vote is a major disappointment to people who were promised full repeal,” said Sen. Ben Sassem R-Neb. “We still have a long, long way to go — both in health policy and in honesty.”
Yet the outcome was hardly a shock in a Senate that’s already shown that unity is elusive when it comes to dealing with Obamacare. The real-world implications of repeal have proven sobering to GOP senators answering to voters who’ve come to rely on expanded insurance coverage under the law.
It’s not over yet. But what the party’s senators might end up agreeing on instead is far from clear. They are plunging ahead with debate toward their unknown goal, pressured by an impatient president. By week’s end Republicans hope to reach agreement among themselves, and eventually with the House, on some kind of repeal and replacement for the Obama law they have reviled for so long.
“We have to keep working hard,” said McConnell, R-Ky. “We’re determined to do everything we can to succeed. We know our constituents are counting on us.”
One possibility taking shape in talks among senators was a “skinny repeal” that would abolish just a few of the key elements of Obama’s law including its mandates that everyone purchase insurance and its taxes that all GOP senators can agree to oppose. But in a sign of the general confusion, some said the tactic was aimed chiefly at moving the process forward into the purview of a committee of Senate-House bargainers while others expressed the hope that the House would swallow a “skinny bill” whole, freeing Congress to move on to other issues.
Either way, after weeks spent on the issue including false starts and near-death experiences that have eaten up months of Trump’s presidency, the realization was dawning on senators that they may be unable to pass anything more complex for now than a lowest-common-denominator bill.
“At the end of the day, we’ve got to start somewhere. This is a start,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C.
The day’s proceedings began with prodding from Trump, who’s proven impatient and inconsistent throughout the health care debate and yet can claim some credit for resuscitating Senate talks after McConnell essentially declared them dead last week.
The president singled out Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who’d voted the day before against opening longawaited debate on the legislation, and also opposed a wide-ranging McConnell amendment Tuesday that offered a replacement for Obamacare and went down to defeat.
“Senator @lisamurkowski of the Great State of Alaska really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad!” Trump wrote.
“I don’t really follow Twitter that much,” Murkowski remarked to reporters later with a shrug.
Murkowski was also among the seven GOP senators who voted “no” Wednesday on the repeal-only bill. The others were Collins, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Dean Heller of Nevada, John McCain of Arizona, Rob Portman of Ohio and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.
In a statement defending his vote, Portman wrote: “We need a rescue plan for Ohio families who are suffering under the status quo, not one that makes the health care system worse for Ohio families.”
Senators were working their way through 20 hours of debate. At week’s end, a “vote-a-rama” of rapid-fire voting on a mountain of amendments was expected before moving to final passage — of something.
Internal GOP differences remain over how broadly to repeal the law, how to reimburse states that would suffer from the bill’s Medicaid cuts and whether to let insurers sell cut-rate, bare-bones coverage that falls short of the requirements.
While pressure and dealmaking helped win over vacillating Republicans to begin debate, they remained fragmented over what to do next. Several pointedly left open the possibility of opposing the final bill if it didn’t suit their states.
“It seems the Republican majority is no clearer on what the end game is, because there’s no good way out of this,” said Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.