Pelosi: Health Care Reform Can't Pass Without Public Option

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the Huffington Post Thursday that a health care overhaul that did not include a public option wouldn't make it through the House because it "wouldn't have the votes."

At a press conference earlier in the morning, Pelosi had been asked if including a public plan that would compete with private insurance was "essential" to health care reform.

"Can you have effective health care reform without a public option?" a reporter asked.

The goal, she responded, was affordability and accessibility. "If you have another way to do that, put it on the table. And that's where we are. Everything should be on the table," she said.

The open-ended answer led some reporters after the press conference to wonder if she was backing off her statement to MSNBC Wednesday that a bill without a public option wouldn't get out of the House.

Not at all, she said. Asked by HuffPost if she would allow a reform package without a public option out of the House, she responded: "It's not a question of allow. It wouldn't have the votes."

The bill would lack the votes because the GOP generally opposes Democratic reform proposals, and the 77 member Congressional Progressive Caucus -- rarely heard from on the Hill -- has been particularly vocal in its commitment to oppose any reform that doesn't include a public option. The public plan's popularity extends beyond progressives and is broadly popular with the Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus and even two-fifths of Blue Dogs, the conservative Democratic coalition.

Pelosi, during the press conference, also rejected a compromise proposal by Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) to create private, nonprofit, regional health care cooperatives instead of a national public option.

Pelosi wasn't having it: "Not instead of a public option, no," she said.

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Comments

[Notawingnut]

I know as a liberal I'm supposed to be head over heals about Pelosi, but she's never much done it for me. This is the first time I can think of in recent memory that I've been very pleased with something she's said. She needs to stand firm on the public option so it doesn't get lost in the legislative path. It will be tougher in the senate, but it's essential to winning my support of healthcare reform.

[zenguy]

She has lost all credibility on anything.

[textynn]

Yep, She's one of them, always has been.

[kepary]

Nancy knew

[Chapmanp2]

Better, Closer, Warmer... Now here Ms. Pelosi form your lips like this & say SINGLE PAYER NOW!!!
Seriously, Democrats have an opportunity (through enacting a real solid single payer system & following it through to successful implimentation) to destroy the Republican party for generations. What are these people so damned afraid of???

[vanderkamp]

Why do the democrats fell they have to make concessions and compromise. They need only 51 in senate to pass it and have more than enough votes in congress.

Do it the GOP way, ignore the opposition and pass a real health reform plan including a public option. This is important enough to let go of the niceties and do it.

[susangg]

Stick to your guns, Nancy! There will be no health care "reform" without a public option. Why? Because the only substantial way to cut costs will be to provide people a health insurance vehicle that puts the 25-35 % of the "health care dollar" that goes to pay for PROFIT TAKING PAPER PUSHER stuff that is NOT providing health care (corporate profits, shareholder dividends, advertising, executive perks, fancy office buildings, care denial, hiring private investigators to retroactively cancel your policy, campaign contributions to pols, etc. etc. etc.) BACK INTO ACTUALLY PROVIDING HEALTH CARE (paying for doctors, nurses, physical therapists, laboratories, equipment, etc.) The public option will do that (the Medicare "overhead" percentage is around 2%) and the insurance companies will either have to drop these costs or go out of business (either way works for me).
Another key ingredient is including home care of the frail elderly. Pushing frail old people into nursing homes (which costs Medicaid a minimum of $4000 per month) instead of giving the family money to hire help for the activities of daily living so Grandma can stay at home costs the tax payers a bundle of money but institutionalization is the preferred alternative of the political whores who take $$ from the big nursing home chains.

[RuWii]

OOOH! So THIS is why republicans are trying so hard to destroy Nancy!

[Conejo]

Absolutely. We HAVE to have the public option. Without it, the health care initiative will not succeed.

[AmandaSabater]

Nancy Pelosi, My hero

[HumoristHumanist]

Please bend over and present buns.

You're about to get a swift kick of disappointment by Congress and the Obama Administration on health care reform.

[davenav]

Since you have a crystal ball -- who's going to win at Churchill Downs tomorrow?

[k6007]

Good girl, nancy! Now, lets go out and embarrass the senate.

[MicheleCA]

Let the American Medical Association know what you think of their decision to oppose a public option.

American Medical Association
515 N. State Street
Chicago, IL 60654
[phone]

[MicheleCA]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/us/politics/11health.html

[HumoristHumanist]

What about AARP? Never a senior's advocate. Only a health insurance industry advocate.

[Paisano]

Single-Payer

[KISSman]

You can't have true reform without a public option. Stand strong, Madam Speaker.

[zest]

Go Nancy Go Nancy Go Nancy Go! Finally someone on the side of the American people.

[amdezurik]

hopefully she will hold onto that position as hard as she did not to impeach the previous criminals who stole the office.

[RTIII]

It's naive to consider comments of political reality an endorsement or support of policy.
.

[blessedtoes]

I am a doctor. We need public health care. I don't care if my personal profits go down, health is a human rights issue not a private profiteering issue. Food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and medical equipment manufacturers are making a literal killing off Americans. It works well in the rest of the Western industrialized world, it can work here too if people contact their representatives - if you don't, the lobbyists will win this one.