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Obama working to get public option

By Michael O'Brien - 10/23/09 11:36 AM ET

The White House is concentrating on winning Senate votes to pass health reform with a public option, a spokesman said Friday.

As questions swirl about the number of votes in the House for several versions of the public option, varying in strength, Deputy White House Secretary Bill Burton said that President Barack Obama is working on votes in the Senate.

"I will say that the president continues to think that the public option is the best way to achieve choice and competition, and that's what he's working toward," Burton said during a press gaggle on Air Force One this morning.

"We're working on getting healthcare reform done, and in order to do that, obviously you're going to need some votes in the United States Senate to move it forward, and that's what we're working on," Burton added.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called an emergency meeting of House Democrats this morning to emphasize that she had not lost the votes for a "robust" public option, contrary to reports this morning.



The reports came after the president lunched with Pelosi on Thursday and met with Senate leaders later that evening.

Burton said that both meetings on healthcare had been productive.

"The president and leadership from the Senate had a very productive conversation about the way forward as it relates to healthcare reform, and they're going to continue to work day and night to make sure that it gets done," he said.

Source:
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/64529-obama-working-on-getting-public-option-votes-in-senate
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Comments (34)

Who do they think they are kidding? They're working out ways to get socialized medicine into this country despite that the majority of the people think it's a bad idea to have the govt run healthcare. They will slip it in any way they can - and then it will be almost impossible to get out of it. They know that and they're willing to say anything (LIE) and do anything (LIE) to get it done.STOP these guys America, now while we have a chance.BY njpro on 10/23/2009 at 13:14
SORRY I HAVE TO SCREAM BUT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DON'T WANT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OWNING THEIR HEALTH CARE!!! DON'T YOU GET IT? WHAT A BUNCH OF LOSERS THE DEMOCRATS ARE. They soon will be very sorry for their votes…2010 and beyond…BY Bree on 10/23/2009 at 13:17
Poll after poll after poll has shown that American voters WANT the public option. Let's hope the Democrats in both the House and Senate show enough backbone to stand up to the health-insurance lobby and give the people what they want.BY Joseph Seymour on 10/23/2009 at 13:36
What a bunch of paranoid nonsense in these two comments. The Amercians people want an end to insurance run health care. Insurance company bureaucrats stand between patients and physicians and heavily ration your care for profit. Insurance run health care kill 45,000 Americans a year. It is time to end insurance run health care as has been the status quo for decades.BY John on 10/23/2009 at 13:44
BTW the US already has socialized medicine, it's called DOD and DVA, in which the government owns and operates the hospitals and physicians are civil servants. NHS in Britain is also socialized medicine by the REAL definition of socialized medicine. Medicare, Medicaid, as well the universal Canadian health care system which is far superior in access and quality to the insurance run health care system in the US, are social insurance systems and are not socialized medicine by the universal (outside the US) definition of what "socialized medicine" reeally is. Most Americans have a warped and totally incorrect idea of what socialized medicine is If physicians are in private practice and hospitals have independent, non government boards, as occurs with Medicare, Medicaid, and the Canadian system, it is NOT socialized medicine.BY John on 10/23/2009 at 13:53
There has been NO COMPETITION across state lines for YEARS! For years health insurance has state and regional protected zones.Thus NO competition.Adding ONE more player to each rigged market is NOT like ALL companies competing for a National market. The benefit will be near ZeRO if not ZERO. Why not DO the Business Expert demonstration by Fixing Medicare and Medicaid First.Then Citizen TAXPAYERS will think you are serious?! OR, use the priorty system and Very Aggressivily persue Job retention and Creation strategies to allow employed consumers to SUPPORT an economy that CAN SUPPORT healthcare reform?? Can this be TOO much Business Administration 102 fo' ya'? The Whole country hopes not,I think?BY GRO on 10/23/2009 at 14:04
Opposition to health care reform is absurd. Most of the people arguing against it are arguing against their best interest. The government does more than a few things quite well. Medicare, Medicaid, The VA, Tri Care, The National Park system , the military, fire departments, police departments, State Universities, NASA and so on.Please answer me one question. How can an American family making $50,000 a year afford $ 12,000 in health insurance ? The gravy train for these Insurance companies has to end.BY Chazz on 10/23/2009 at 14:05
I echo the comments above, the American people have absolutely no interest in government health care. What is so difficult to understand about this? Why can't Obama, Pelosi and Reid understand this fact? They are destroying the Democratic party. It's obvious Obama doesn't care if Democratic legislators fail to win re-election in 2010. Look at his response with Deeds in Virginia. The issue is that if Dem's vote for the health care bill they will be out of a job November 2, 2010.BY Charlie Sanders on 10/23/2009 at 14:05
Charlie , you are 180 degrees wrong on your political assessment. Obama's approval numbers will go up when this bill passes. He was elected to do this. Republicans will pay the same price they paid for years for their opposition to Medicare and SS .BY Chazz on 10/23/2009 at 14:15
No one should make a profit off of someone else's disease. It's immoral. The whole system should be non-profit. The best way to do that is through a single-payer system. We're a rich country. We can and should take care of our own. Why right-wing zealots want to protect insurance company profits is a mystery to me. They hate the very idea of government, but their paranoia has no basis in fact. They are puppets of insurance profiteers.BY Jack Farrell on 10/23/2009 at 14:19

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