Although many of us would like to see a single pay health care system, and scoff at a plan that might only remove 20 million citizens from among the uninsured, my friend Jim Jacobs has taken on the campaign to help President Obama accomplish something something that is possible NOW, which is why we are promulgating his latest proposal to:

Help Build Support for Obama's Health Care Plan

By Jim Jacobs

President Obama continues to support a strong public option insurance. Today, he spoke to the American Medical Association, a group that supports health care reform in general, but opposes a public option. Of course, health care reform must have a strong public plan in some shape, or it's not going to be true reform.

Finally, in his weekly address to the nation on Saturday, which can be viewed on YouTube, President Obama announced that the White House has identified an additional $313 billion dollars in savings to match savings already identified. This was substantiated by Peter Orszag, Director of the Office of Management and Budget and former Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Below is a quote from an article by Josh Gerstein that appeared 6/14/09 on the POLITICO website:

“Orszag asserted that the White House had put forward $950 billion in budgetary offsets that could be use to fund health reform. He called the proposals 'hard' and 'scoreable,' meaning that they were sufficiently certain and specific to pass muster with CBO officials who formally tally the cost of budget items.”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/ … age2.html#ixzz0ISebhPSU&D

One suggestion for paying for the start up of a public option plan would be to tax part of the health benefits received by the wealthy. That idea has mainly been floated in the Senate. However, the President has said that he is against that, and Vice President Biden restated that position Sunday 6/14 on NBC's Meet the Press.


Following is an update of where legislation stands in the Congress:

In the House, Speaker Pelosi has made it clear that any legislation leaving that body will fulfill the three principles set down by the president. Committee work is underway, and the chairs of each of the committees dealing with health care have also made it clear that they are on the same page as the president.

The Senate is more problematic.

Although Senator Ted Kennedy has submitted a plan that supports a strong public option as well as meets the president's three principles, his bout with cancer has made it impossible for him to daily chair his Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. In Kennedy's absence, Senator Chris Dodd is chairing the committee, but not having Senator Kennedy's daily involvement takes a powerful presence out of the health care fight.

However, there is a tiny bit of good news from the Republican side of the aisle. Dr. Howard Dean reports on his website, www.standwithdrdean.com, that Senator Olympia Snowe of ME has announced that she will support a public option. (Senator Snowe is the only Republican to give any public backing to the president on health care). That's the good news. Here's the bad news: According Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor, Senator Snowe will only support a public option as a “trigger” that kicks in after a non-public-option plan has been tried and has failed.

In addition, Senator Kent Conrad of ND, Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, is getting jelly in his spine. He says that he's afraid to use budget reconciliation that would allow for passage of health care reform with only 51 votes instead of 60. Conrad gives all of his “reasons” in an interview with Ezra Klein at http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein

The response I gave to Senator Conrad's office (202-224-2043) when I call today is this: The Republican's didn't hesitate to use the budget reconciliation tactic when they wanted to push something through. For the sake of the American people, show some guts!

Senator Conrad also says that there currently aren't the votes in the Senate for a public option. As stated earlier in this e-mail, Sen. Snowe is the only Republican who has committed in any form to a public option, and only 37 Democrats in the Senate have signed on to support a public option. That means that 21 haven't made up their minds, and one Senate Democrat—Mary Landrieu of LA—is listed on Howard Dean's website as having come out against a public option. (Sen. Landrieu originally signed a pledge to support a public option, then reneged, saying through a spokesperson that she didn't know what she was signing.) The response I gave to Conrad—and Landrieu (202-224-5824)—is this: If you can't support a popular president who won the Nov. election by millions of popular votes and an electoral landslide based on CHANGE, then you're not fit to govern.

In an attempt to coax enough Senators toward health care reform, Sen. Conrad has floated an idea of replacing a public option with federally chartered, nonprofit health care cooperatives that would get seed money from the government but would be run by a nongovernmental board elected by members of the cooperatives. Ostensibly these cooperatives would sustain themselves through premiums. Frankly, I don't know enough details to say much more about it. All I know is that President Obama supports a public option and that's what I'm supporting. If it can be convincingly demonstrated that cooperatives can meet President Obama's three principles (and if the president is satisfied), then I would accept it as a suitable compromise; however, I want Conrad and the other Democratic leaders of the Senate to make a true effort at getting their party in line. In other words, show some guts.

Finally, we are going to get this thing done. This time the people—you and I—are going to prevail, not the big insurance companies or big pharma. Please, if you live in the states represented by any of the waffling Democratic senators call their offices and declare your support for the president and public option; or if you have relatives or friends in any of the states, encourage them to call the offices of those senators. Here are the Democrats in the Senate who have not yet announced their support for a public option:

Max Baucus of MT (202-224-2651), Evan Bayh of IN (202-224-5623), Mark Begich of AK (202-224-3004), Michael Bennet of CO (202-224-5852), Robert Byrd of WV (202-224-3954), Maria Cantwell of WA (202-224-3441), Tom Carper of DE (202-224-2441), Kent Conrad of ND (202-224-2043), Byron Dorgan of ND (202-224-2551), Diane Feinstein of CA (202-224-3841), Kay Hagan of NC (202-224-6342), Mary Landrieu of LA (202-224-5824), Joe Lieberman of CT (202-224-4041)—Lieberman calls himself an “Independent Democratic,” but he caucuses with the Democrats—Blanche Lincoln of AR (202-224-4843), Ben Nelson of NE (202-224-6551), Mark Pryor of AR (202-224-2353), Harry Reid of NV (202-224-3542) Arlen Specter of PA (202-224-4254), John Tester of MT (202-224-2644), Mark Udall of CO (202-224-5941), Mark Warner of VA (202-224-2023), Ron Wyden of OR (202-224-5244).


This week I will be calling targeted citizens for Organizing for America. If any of you want to join me, just go to www.barackobama.com, click on the Health Care Action tool at the left. That will take you to a page where you can click on a figure of a telephone, which sets you up to call targeted citizens in any state. If you need any help, don't hesitate to e-mail me.
( hjjake [at] thepeopleingalesburg.org )
I want to thank those of you who have already volunteered to make calls.

Thanks—and let's get it done!

Jim Jacobs