Pres. Obama Meets with House Progressives on Healthcare

[AtomicKitten]

Obama Restates Support For Public Plan In Meeting With Progressives

04/28/09

A group of progressive members of the House of Representatives met with the President on Tuesday to discuss economic and health care matters. The message that they conveyed from their meeting is that the White House supports efforts for a public plan for insurance coverage when it comes to health care reform.

One of those members, speaking to the Huffington Post after the affair, summarized it like this: "The President told us we have his backing on a public plan." The obstacle, the member added, will come in Congress, where cobbling together the votes needed to pass a health care package with a public plan could be problematic.

Needless to say, progressive health care reform advocates will be heartened to hear that Obama restated his support for a public option for insurance coverage. While the private insurance industry views this as a gateway toward universalized health care, progressives and many Democrats see it as the most affective way to bring costs under control in the near term.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/28/obama-restates-support-fo_n_192438.html

[DrToast]

1. I'm glad Obama is for it....

I'm glad Obama is for it, but he doesn't sound optimistic about the public plan.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

2. Tweety pointed out today that he is changing his phrasing to "affordable" healthcare.

Whatever that means, it doesn't mean single payer in my book. I am hoping for MAJOR blowback from EVERYONE on this. We don't need a minor tweaking that keeps profit in the system.

[DrToast]

3. He's always said that. And "public option" doesn't have to mean single payer

The important thing is to have a public plan that people can buy into.

But if even that isn't likely, that's really messed up. We'll probably get stuck with something like the Wyden plan, which is probably better than the current system, but probably not by much.

[cascadiance]

4. Hell yeah! Let's cut out the "Heatlh Ward Profiteers"!! No more insurance companies!

It's going to happen sooner or later! Obama, you'll help yourself in 2012 if you help it get there sooner!

[AtomicKitten]

5. Bernie Sanders was on the Ed show fired up! He said it's go-time and

that we should all pressure the Democrats in the pocket of the insurance industry to get on board single-payer.

[blaze]

9. Wow!

Last I heard, Bernie was saying single-payer didn't have a chance!

He must be seeing more than a glimmer of hope here!!

[HopeOverFear]

6. WHOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOO (c) Little Richard

[annabanana]

7. I am glad to hear that re: public plan...

But the devil, as usual, will be in the details...

[jenmito]

8. If we had single payer healthcare, would we still be able to keep our insurance and doctors

if we wanted to like Obama said up 'til now? That the only thing that would change is that it would be cheaper?

[asdjrocky]

10. Wow,

with a solid majority, and a President like Obama, there's no reason we can't have what we've been promised since the time of Truman. Good article, thanks for bringing it AK.

[SpartanDem]

11. kick