Next week President Obama will convene his bipartisan health care summit. It’s expected that sometime in next few days, the Senate bill + reconciliation sidecar will be introduced. The reconciliation bill is to correct some of the issues that the House had with the Senate bill. We don’t know exactly what’s in it but it’s thought to remove the health insurance company anti-trust exemption, remove the special Medicaid deal for Nebraska and introduce a fix for the excise tax (still the major sticking point).
There’s now another push to introduce a public option through reconciliation. I’m not sure if this will be a separate bill or part of the reconciliation package. Right now, 14 Senators have signed on (we need 50). The 14 Senators are Michael Bennet, Kirsten Gillibrand, Jeff Merkley, Sherrod Brown, Al Franken, Pat Leahy, John Kerry, Sheldon Whitehouse, Roland Burris, Bernie Sanders, Dianne Feinstein, Amy Klobuchar, Ben Cardin and Carl Levin. Neither Ted Kaufman or Tom Carper have signed on, so let them know what you think. There’s a script for the call if you want one, and also a petition you can sign. Be sure to tell them 1) you want health care reform to pass, no more delaying and 2) pass a public option through reconciliation.
The public polling supports passing health care reform. In fact, the newest poll showed that opposition to health care reform is mostly from people who would never vote for Democrats anyway (1% approve, 94% oppose among the 37% who definitely won’t vote Democratic). Among people who would consider voting for Democrats (30% who would consider, 34% who definitely will) 64% approve of passing reform, with only 22% opposed.
The public wants Democrats to deliver on their promise of change. No more excuses, no more wringing of hands. Pass it and then sell it. The people opposed may be loud, but they aren’t the majority.