The big news this afternoon was Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) abandoning his previous promise to offer an amendment to the Senate health care bill adding a public option into the bill. This amendment would need only 51 votes, as the public option reduces the deficit (by a lot) and therefore is in order for reconciliation. Sanders announcement that he is backing down to the Senate Democratic leadership and White House aides who cut a deal with hospital/drug lobbyists to kill the public option seemed to suggest the public option is dead. That is, until Colorado Senate Democratic candidate Andrew Romanoff tonight just issued a statement that will put significant pressure on his primary opponent, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), to offer the amendment instead:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASERomanoff: Where's the 'Public Option' Champion?
After learning today that no member of the United States Senate would stand up for a "public option" in health care reform, U.S. Senate candidate Andrew Romanoff issued the following statement:
"As Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives, I led the fight against insurance companies that unreasonably delay or deny their customers' valid claims. I know first-hand the lengths that industry will go to resist reform.
"I am deeply disappointed to learn that no member of the U.S. Senate is willing to offer an amendment to restore the public option to the health care bill.
"Millions of Americans cannot afford to keep up with the soaring costs of health insurance. That is why a majority of the American people support a public option. The Congressional Budget Office has concluded that a public option will reduce the deficit.
"I call on the leadership of the U.S. Senate to allow an up-or-down vote on the public option. We should not allow the insurance industry to kill the competition the American public wants."
Bennet has spent the last month and a half touting his letter demanding a public option -- and getting a lot of press for that move (deservedly so, IMHO). But now, thanks to Romanoff's demand, he will have to put up or shut up. If he refuses to offer the amendment, he shows his past efforts to be kabuki theater -- grandstanding for attention while refusing to actually take the steps necessary to do what he publicly claims he wants to do.
Bennet, as this clip from the Rachel Maddow Show proves, has shown a willingness to respond to primary pressure on the public option - and he may be even more willing to respond to that pressure considering he just lost the Colorado Democratic caucuses this week.
Oh, and how many other Senate Democratic primary challengers across the country are going to start issuing similar statements against Senate Democratic incumbents?
Stay tuned - this is going to get interesting. Romanoff will be on my AM760 radio show to discuss this on Monday. Tune in here from 7-10am every weekday.
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He said he would lose his job over health care. So, get on it!
The current health care bill is a galaxy away from the status quo, and -- like Social Security and Medicare -- can be improved once passed.
If Mr. Romanoff cannot see that, then he would not be the effective senator I can support. I want pragmatic success, not idealistic loss.
A public health care plan is popular and will provide real deficit reduction. What reason is there to oppose it?
http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=7923
Citing a single web site that states a contrary opinion is not the same as real evidence.
The public option still lurks in the wings, BTW. It is not dead.
I like the health care bill because it makes everyone buy health insurance. This is the very same platform that Obama campaigned on in 2008. If people didn't want to have to buy health insurance, they wouldn't have voted for the president.
Health insurance has been around for more than a hundred years. Health insurance takes care of you and me. The people that own and are executives of health insurance companies are like you and me. And they are men and women of great integrity.
If they increased rates, it's only because the economy is bad and people stopped paying for health insurance and they needed the president to step up and live up to his campaign promise to mandate everybody to purchase private health insurance. Whatever the private health insurance companies are doing, it's to protect you and me.
The president, the health care bill, and the private health insurance companies of America are going to protect you and me.
Until next time, everybody!
Only a Free Public Option, run by the government, which eliminates insurance companies, and uses sales taxes to pay for care, which would then be delivered free from government hospitals, can produce the cost savings needed for reform.
Public Option users would never have to pay another insurance premium; medical service co pay fee, prescription cost, dental, eye care, long term care or any other healthcare costs, all care they received from government hospitals, clinics and pharmacies would be free period.
Public Option care would deliver all government funded care; Medicare, Medicaid everything, replace all state and local systems, all employers could turn employee care over to the Public Option and eliminate all their costs and involvements, and sales taxes would provide the low cost funding source to eliminate insurance from within the Public Option.
The second half of a dual system would be private only; consumers would pay to receive private care, which would be delivered in private hospitals, no public funding would be paid to private insurers or providers.
Fees paid for private insurance and care would be tax deductible to purchasers and plans and benefits received for healthcare would be tax free to recipients.
The President, Democrats, Republicans and the healthcare industry have blocked this solution from the debate but this is the only practical reform to save lives and money.
I also like Romanoffs' stand on corporate payoffs (campaign financing). If Bennet does the right thing then there is hope for true health care reform...if he doesn't then I'll know who to vote for in the primary.
He has opposed unions, fought any form of progressive reform until he was seriously challenged by Romanoff, and been a total cipher since his appointment by Ritter, the lamest of lame duck governors.
Had not Ritter appointed him to the Senate, He would have never been in a public, elected office, not even dogcatcher..
I'm not impressed by Romanoff's stand on PAC financing. So long as the Republicans reap in far more money than Democrats, there will always be a shortfall of financial support for Democratic candidates.
And you can call Gov. Ritter a lane duck, but, please, state what he could have done with the Republicans in Colorado's congress and the current economic situation.
Insurance companies are the parasites, the middle man, the mafia; they have nothing to do with health or care. They have no product and provide no service. They stand in the way of you and your doctor.
Insurance companies are the enemy of good health.
The function of collecting revenue into a pool and distributing it when and where it is necessary could be done by an arm of the Federal government quite easily.
Romanoff: Your not just representing Colorado, your representing progressives across the nation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOL-ak__tpk