Signed Letter From Landrieu Shows She Supported Public Option Before She Opposed It

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) pledged her support for a public health care option less than six months before she announced opposition to such a plan, according to a signed letter she sent to a major reform coalition dated November 4th.

Read the letter, obtained by the Huffington Post, here.

"I'm not open to it. I'm not open to a public option," Landrieu told the Huffington Post early Tuesday afternoon. "However, I will remain open to a compromise, a full compromise. Public option is not something that I support. I don't think it's the right way to go."

It only took a few hours for her rejection of the public plan to become ammunition for the GOP. After lunch with his colleagues on Tuesday, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell used Landrieu's rejection of a public health care option to make the case that the nation doesn't want such a "government plan."

McConnell, after citing a Washington Post editorial opposed to the public option, turned his attention to Landrieu.

"Apparently Sen. Landrieu just made an announcement a while ago that a government plan is a bad idea, and so I would strongly recommend to the administration, and to the majority in Congress, that if we're serious about getting a bipartisan health reform bill...the best way to go forward on a bipartisan basis would be to take out the government plan," a pleased McConnell told reporters.

Landrieu had told the coalition Health Care for America Now (HCAN) in April that she supported a public option, which would compete against private plans. She signed a pledge that she supported a "choice of a private insurance plan, including keeping the insurance you have if you like it, or a public insurance plan without a private insurer middleman that guarantees affordable coverage."

Landrieu went even further and drafted a letter to HCAN specifically spelling out her support for a public option.

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"HCAN principles embody an approach that actually delivers a solution of guaranteed quality, affordable health care for all in America. Under this approach, everyone gets a choice of health insurance plans, including the right to keep your current insurance, choose another private plan or to join a public health insurance plan," she wrote in April.

"Again," she concluded, "I support the HCAN Statement of Common Purpose, and I oppose the 'on your own' approaches to health care reform that go against these principles. And, I salute the efforts of the broad grassroots coalition represented by Health Care for America Now to advance this most critical of issues."

The efforts of the coalition that she saluted will now be directed at her.

Throughout her congressional career, Landrieu has raised $1,668,693 from health insurance and health care interests -- broken down by "health professionals" ($607,616), "Insurance" $401,731, "Hospitals/Nursing Homes" $269,645, "Pharmaceuticals/Health Products" $224,696 and "Health Services/HMOs" ($165,005). HuffPost blogger Sahil Kapur helped gather the campaign figures from the Center for Responsive Politics.

Landrieu's office has been getting deluged by calls from reporters since the news of her public plan rejection broke and her spokesman Aaron Saunders responded to a request for a comment with a statement:

"Senator Landrieu is committed to reforming the health care system and ensuring that all Americans are covered. She is reviewing all of the reform proposals. Senator Landrieu does not believe that health care reform starts with a public option. However, she is open to compromise in a comprehensive legislative package, and is focused on appropriate consumer protection and patient-centered care."

Landrieu Letter -

Comments

[BUTCHER111]

Flip Flopper.

[lib2dbone]

Landrieu is my Senator, and she appears at my church just before election day every 6 years. Then she wins by the thinnest of margins, but she's the best we have in Louisiana.
Jindal is our definition of a 'genius'.

[vernonbc]

"Jindal is our definition of a 'genius'."

You have my sympathies. Louisiana definitely has a paucity of politicians.

[ie]

That's sad. You're better off than many of us in Texas, though....

[Donns]

Louisiana, Texas,Illinois, Minnesota, California; Is there a state left with any intelligence left out there?

[scorpioleidy]

I feel sorry for you.

[lysistrata]

Landrieu, Nelson, Baucus and all the other blue dogs and Republicans know national health care would be better than anything the private sector has to offer. They are there to protect the industry's profit and their campaign contributions and the millions of income they will get lobbying after they leave the government. They made bribes legal a long time ago. They are as corrupt as any politician in say Mexico. All of the same cloth. I think they don't intend to run for reelection, they serve the industry now and will be paid later.

[roxsteady]

We're not going to get single payer but we will get a public option which will offer more reasonable rates along with strict guidlines for the private insurers. The best part of of public plan is basic and breaks this monopoly. If the government is offering a better and more reasonable plan than the private sector, that's where the majority of us will go. Either the private insurers lower their rates, or they will lose business. End of story. As for these fakeass Dems, I think it would be best to continue to point out the names and the amount that each has received from these insurance companies. I'm hoping moveon.org will buy some airtime. Bastards!

[lysistrata]

The point is, the government would offer a better and affordable plan and the fight is to protect the insurance industry against that from happening. It just shows again how the nation is governed and bought by the corporations, not by elected government by a bought government. The fight is to keep the health care private and for profit and no competition at all from government.

[rxvette]

A combination of both public and private plans are the best way to go if the following two conditions are put into place:

1) Both private and public insurance plans are prohibited from discriminating against pre-existing conditions
2) Both private and public insurance plans are prohibited from making a profit on BASIC medical care

Otherwise we'll end up failing millions of more patient's like this one:

http://rxvette.blogspot.com/2009/05/healthcare-reform-touches-home.html

[LemonMeringue]

This woman has become our enemy.

[Altruth]

She was for the Single Payer option until the insurance companies paid her off!

[ie]

hmm..... follow the money.

[JackNasty]

I am trying so hard not to show my contempt for this over-privileged, delicate blonde flower of a southern obstructionist dynasty.

Somebody needs to cut off her health care. Maybe then she'll develop some empathy

[Texas Aggie]

We've got Mitch going through the whole bipartisan support thing again. He really does not understand that the purpose of the health reform is to reform the health care that Americans are (not) receiving, not to put on some dog and pony show about being friends and lovers. If he wants to cooperate and show his bipartisanship by helping reform the present disaster inappropriately called healthcare, then he is more than welcome to play. But as long as he behaves like a six year old throwing a temper tantrum, then he'll have to be dragged along kicking and screaming.

It is obvious even to him that any lack of bipartisanship rests wholly at his front door. Obama has tried constantly to involve McConnell's kind in everything, but they've been acting like little brats that if they can't have their own way, then they won't play.

[LemonMeringue]

She has betrayed her constituents and all of the American people who worked hard to get Democrats elected.

Primary challenge.

[jonbw]

Concard has will kill the public option with his "co-op" idea. It would be a complete sell out and defeat for the progressives. We need to stop it before it builds an momentum

http://jwalkerreport.blogspot.com/2009/06/senator-conrad-is-trying-to-kill-public.html

[mikefina]

Voted for it, before she voted against it?

With whom is she trying to kerry favor?

[KCFreedom]

If she made that creep Mitch McConnell happy, something is really wrong here.

[jhink465]

I got a call from the DNC the other day asking for a donation. My response was that I will not support the DNC as long as it abides the likes of Landrieu, Nelson, and the other so-called Bluedog Democrats. Unless and until they send these bluedogs to the pound, I will not contribute to the DNC.

[touringpro]

Good on you! My feeling exactly.

[LemonMeringue]

If Democrats do not deliver on health care they will make themselves irrelevant.

And the alternative - Republicans - is unthinkable.

So the Dems had better deliver, or we will replace them with better Dems.

[KCFreedom]

Good luck. Both parties are rotten to the core.

[admiralj]

True! True!

[AurigaRa]

F you Mary.
Wish I could vote AGAINST you.

[LemonMeringue]

We can campaign for and donate to a primary challenger though.

Throw them out if they won't deliver what we deserve.

[XLintLuvR]

Unfortunately, that Blue b!+ch democrat just got elected. We're stuck with her for the next 5 years.

[Fasteddie1515]

She already lost my vote...now she's losing my vote for her brother!

[admiralj]

Can you say "recall".