Senator Kerry’s ever-vigilant staff was quick to respond to my post last night about the public option pressure campaign directed against him by Democracy for America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. New Media Director Brian Young reported that the Senator said the following at a recent rally outside his office:
A public plan will meaningfully transform our delivery system through its lower administrative expenses and bargaining power. A public plan will also increase competition and would lower costs in the private insurance market. … The American public is overwhelmingly in favor of a public plan. A recent New York Times/CBS News poll found that 72 percent of those questioned supported a public plan modeled after Medicare that would compete for customers with private insurers. Americans have made a choice last November. They voted for a President and a Congress that are committed to delivering meaningful health reform. And I intend to do everything in my power to fulfill that commitment.
Alert BMGer KarenC pointed us to this comment last week by the Senator on DailyKos:
Been working very hard on the Finance committee to try to see it included. Harder slog than it ought to be. I ran for President with a public option as an anchor off my health care plan, want to see one now that we get to do reform. Would do Medicare for all if I could start from scratch, so I’m a definite supporter of a strong, national public option. We’ll see what we can do. Glad to see HELP Committee passed out a bill with one today – EMK and Dodd, you couldn’t have two better leaders on this issue.
Excellent. A welcome clarification of the critical centrality of a public option to any “real health care reform” in the words of Governor Howard Dean. The letter Senator Kerry sent to Ryan the other day, and which he posted, I thought, raised some justifiable questions — and judging from the comments there and on my post today, I wasn’t the only one.
Moving forward, I have written to Democracy for America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee to see if they will take Senator Kerry off their list since his position on this issue is pretty much exactly what they say they want and, if not, why not. I’ll keep you posted.
annem says
From what I see http://kerry.senate.gov does not include any high-profile item about the need for a Medicare-like public insurance option in national health reform. I have not seen any news article referencing Senator Kerry’s bold stand representing the wishes of his constituents who support a Medicare-like public option in national health reform. What are voters to think?
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p>My Aunt Jodie lives in Cleveland Ohio and has the kind of Congressman and Senators that I wish we in Massachusetts had. Aunt Jodie’s Congressional Rep. is Sherrod Brown http://brown.senate.gov . Years ago Rep. Brown pledged to not take the Congressional Health Insurance coverage until the U.S. joined the rest of the industrialized world and established a non-profit national health insurance program to GUARANTEE coverage for everyone (not to be confused with enacting a mandate that everyone purchase private, often crappy, insurance, otherwise known as “The Mass. Plan”).
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p>Congressman Sherrod Brown demonstrates the kind of integrity and courage that we need in our Massachusetts Congressional delegation and our members of the Senate as we enter the biggest health reform fight of a generation.
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p>Countless lives are at stake not to mention the dollars.
annem says
Brown was a member of Congress until 2006 when he was elected to the Senate. My prior comments still stand; compare Sen. Brown’s Health Care page to Senator Kerry’s. And weep.
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p>http://kerry.senate.gov/congre…
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p>http://brown.senate.gov/issues…
joeltpatterson says
to get on board with the public plan?
ryepower12 says
and we need that support.
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p>What I’d like him to do, though, is to take the FDL pledge to vote no on anything that doesn’t include a robust, public option available on day now, not a year from now, or three years from now, or ten.
liveandletlive says
excitement generated from his statement, therefore, there is no need for an exclamation point. It was more like an invitation to take a nap.
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p>Including declaring now that I will support a ten year trigger if that’s all we get. Yay. Thanks, Senator Kerry. You never cease to disturb me.
johnk says
It could be Kerry being Kerry, but for goodness sakes, it still sounds like he wants it but it’s negotiable.
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masslib says
After all, it’s pretty meager. The CBO predicts that between 0 to 9 million people will enroll in the “public option”.
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p>http://www.pnhp.org/blog/2009/…
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p>I’m still having trouble seeing how anyone living in MA can not see what Congress is discussing passing is a national MA health plan.
joeltpatterson says
A warplane that can’t last more than 2 hours on average is not worth it. Good choice, Senator!