Despite lack of public option, liberal coalition (HCAN) still calls for passage of healthcare bill

[jefferson_dem]

Despite lack of public option, liberal coalition still calls for Senate passage of healthcare bill
December 15, 2009 | 12:12 pm

The left may be livid at Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Senate Democratic leaders who caved to his demand to remove any public option from the healthcare bill that Democrats are pushing to pass next week.

But bowing to reality, Health Care for America Now, the influential coalition of liberal activist groups, plans to send a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) this afternoon calling for passage of the legislation, said the group’s campaign manager, Richard Kirsch.

“There are major problems with the Senate bill,” Kirsch said in an interview today. “But if the Senate doesn’t act, there will be no healthcare reform. ... The place to fix is in a conference committee” with House and Senate leaders at the table.

The House healthcare bill includes a provision to create a government-run insurance plan that would be available to Americans who do not get their coverage through work.

Kirsh said it was "despicable" that Lieberman -- after backing the idea just a few months earlier -- had renounced a compromise plan to expand Medicare to people 55 to 64 years old, and he labeled the senator “a neutron bomb for the insurance industry” in healthcare negotiations.

But he said liberal activists were hopeful that House Democrats would succeed in restoring a government plan in the final bill that is sent to President Obama.

“If anyone thinks that this is the last public option story we’ll be reading, they are very mistaken,” he said.

Health Care for America Now’s members include MoveOn.org, the NAACP, the AFL-CIO and the American Nurses Assn.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dcnow/2009/12/liberals-swallow-unhappiness-back-senate-healthcare-bill.html

[Clio the Leo]

1. Thanks. NT

[Richardo]

2. Please, no calls for anything but a purifying pogrom of the party - this is DU, after all.

Nice article. K&R

[NJmaverick]

3. This is heartening to see there are at least some liberals that are realists.

[Cha]

4. HCAN is calling for passage and Dean is saying

No. And, lieberman is licking his chops.

[tandot]

5. K & R

[MasonJar]

6. Listen to Howard. Use other avenues to get a good bill, not an insurance

company panecea.

[southern_belle]

7. k & r n/t

[flpoljunkie]

8. Lieberman said this summer he would not hesitate to vote against cloture on the conference report.

Lieberman said this to Andrea Mitchell this summer, and I might, add, gleefully. And, sadly, he's not the only one. We have too many insurance company Democrats. Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, Mary Landrieu, Tom Carper to name the most outspoken-but they are not alone in their corporate sell out.