Dean favors scaled-back healthcare reform

Former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean on Friday threw his support behind passing a series of scaled-back healthcare measures instead of one comprehensive bill. 

Dean embraced the approach now favored by some House Democrats in an appearance on CBS' "Early Show" Friday morning. 

"We can't get the whole thing but I think we can get some good stuff done before the election," he said. "I would go back and do that though and run it through the reconciliation program."

Democrats in Congress have been scrambling to find a new way to pass healthcare reform legislation because Sen.-elect Scott Brown (R-Mass.) will break the Democrats' filibuster-proof majority in the Senate once he is sworn in.

Democratic leaders have said they will not hold votes on healthcare reform until Brown is seated. 

House Democrats on Thursday appeared to abandon the option of passing the Senate bill as is then relying on the Senate to make fixes using budget reconciliation.

Dean last month called on Democrats to kill the Senate bill because Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) removed the popular Medicare buy-in proposal favored by liberals. Dean later walked back his remarks.

Some Democrats in the lower chamber noted their support for a piecemeal approach to passing the reforms but many Senate Democrats remained wary of extending the healthcare debate even further in 2010, an election year. 

But the former Vermont governor remained optimistic that Congress would pass a measure using the approach and blamed Republicans for the predicament in which Democrats now find themselves.

"The Republicans are using this as a tactic to kill healthcare and embarrass the president," Dean said. "That's not the right thing to do for America."

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