Durbin Vows to Push for Public Option — With an Asterisk
Email ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: As liberals hold out hope for a health care bill that includes a public option, a strong supporter of a public option, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, seemed to dash their hopes earlier this week by saying liberals need to "swallow hard" and realize the votes aren't there to make their wishes come true. But today, a spokesman for Durbin, D-Ill., issued a statement through progressive groups that are pushing for a public option: “I want to be crystal clear: Sen. Durbin and the rest of the Senate Leadership will be aggressively whipping FOR the public option if it is included in the reconciliation bill the House sends over,” the spokesman, Joe Shoemaker, said. “Conversely, the Leaders will whip against any attempt to alter or amend the bill if the public option is not in it.” Realistically, this doesn’t change the very long odds against the inclusion of a public option. House Democratic leaders are having trouble getting moderates on board without one; adding one back in through budget reconciliation would almost certainly hurt those vote-building efforts. But liberal groups are saying this puts the ball back in the court of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has offered outspoken support for the public option in the past: “The fate of the public option is now in Nancy Pelosi's hands. The votes and the leadership are there in the Senate, and the public option will live or die based on Nancy Pelosi's next moves. She's been a hero on this issue in the past, and we hope that she steps up at this historic moment,” three groups involved in lobbying for a public option — the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Democracy for America, and Credo Action — said in a joint statement.
UPDATE: Pelosi today again shut the door on the inclusion of a public option, nothing that the votes proved not to be there to support one in the Senate. “It isn’t there because they don’t have the votes to have it in there,” said Pelosi, D-Calif. “We had it [in the House]. We wanted it. They didn’t want. It isn’t in reconciliation.”
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The democrats need to get past this. The public option is not dead. Single payer needs to be the agenda this next election. We need to throw out some republicrats and replace them with real democrats. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.
Posted by: rightbehind | March 12, 2010, 1:01 pm 1:01 pm
I want the government to pay for all the healthcare, I want it FREE. Also I want my mortgage to be paid for, my groceries, my car, my clothing, my vacations (which I had none in years) and anything else that come along.
Posted by: Lizzie | March 12, 2010, 1:10 pm 1:10 pm
They are all crazy!!
Posted by: wis134 | March 12, 2010, 1:31 pm 1:31 pm
Public option…. comin at ya! Get use to it!!!
Posted by: Bart | March 12, 2010, 1:46 pm 1:46 pm
If instead of wasting money by paying private insurance with taxes Congress and President Obama were to open Medicare to everyone for health insurance, put it under the laws that private insurance operate under and the average individual payment was what the retired pay now there is a national healthcare that works. The following is an example with Medicare paying 100% of a doctors office visit with only the retired people paying Medicare. Now if you increase the amount of available money by each person paying $110.00 each retired person pays each month, you do the figures it appears the available money would be in the trillions at a cost of each citizen of less than one third what they would pay under the heath care plan the Democrats are trying to push through.
There approximately 300 million people in America. If each person goes to a doctor for an office visit and pays $200.00 for that visit (This is probably double of an average visit cost). The cost for those visits is $60,000,000,000.00 (60 billion dollars). There 57 million retired people paying $110.00 a month on Medicare. That is $75,240,000,000.00 (75.24 billion dollars). Now if you add everyone making Medicare payments the amount paid in is much higher. This means with only one sixth of the population paying Medicare for health insurance there is over 15 billion dollars left over after everyone had a office visit for the year. How many of the 300 million people actually visit the doctor in a year?
Do you want to pay tax to support BIG BUSINESS or pay for affordable health care?
Posted by: Nancy | March 12, 2010, 2:07 pm 2:07 pm
We need jobs to pay for insurance
Posted by: Nancy | March 12, 2010, 2:08 pm 2:08 pm
Insurance based jobs only provide coverage while you are healthy… most bankruptcy is caused by Health care costs after someone has lost their job.
Public option is the only way to go, proven time and time again. Insurance is a racket… for profit health insurance is a crime.
They take 30% of the proceeds and pay towards staff to deny you coverage when you need it and drive their bonuses up.
Posted by: DewyB | March 12, 2010, 2:17 pm 2:17 pm
Hmm, yea right and when you get gov controling all the health care don,t come crying to me about being in a long wait. AS my in laws live in Malaysia and they wait in line at the gov hospital there and if somebody does have the mony there then they go to the private hospital as they know that is where the better care is.
And the way things are going here in the US i can see it now in 5 to 10 years going to be a stupid gov run system and it is not going to be funny then.
Posted by: Roger Olson | March 13, 2010, 8:45 pm 8:45 pm