The White House released a strong statement today backing the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee's healthcare reform bill. President Obama touted new Congressional Budget Office estimates that scored the legislation at a much lower cost to taxpayers than previously thought.
Obama said:
Today the Senate HELP committee has produced legislation that lowers costs, protects choice of doctors and plans and assures quality and affordable health care for Americans.
The Congressional Budget Office has now issued a more complete review of this bill, concluding that it will cost less and cover more Americans than originally estimated.
The CBO now estimates the bill will cost $611 billion as opposed to $1 trillion.
Obama also noted that the HELP committee version contains a public option, saying "The public option would make health care affordable by increasing competition, providing more choices and keeping the insurance companies honest." The president echoed remarks he made at yesterday's healthcare town hall meeting in Annandale, VA.
Two senior senators, Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), head the HELP committee. Dodd's office released a statement lauding the new CBO estimates today.
President Obama's release suggests that the HELP version will be merged with the Senate Finance Committee's version of the reform bill. The Finance Committee, however, has yet to issue a statement on the new legislation. Members of the committee chaired by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) had previously balked at the CBO's original cost estimate.
President Obama's goals for healthcare reform may be gaining traction in public opinion but Americans are still very divided about his reform proposals, two new polls released Wednesday indicate.
A CNN/Opinion Research poll found that a slim majority - 51 percent - favor President Obama's plan to reform the healthcare system. A slightly fewer number - 45 percent - oppose Obama's plan and four percent have no opinion.
A slightly larger majority - 55 percent - said the healthcare system needs a "great deal" of reform while 40 percent said "only some."
CNN points out that these numbers are higher than those President Bill Clinton registered in July of 1994. According to CNN/USA Today/Gallup polls then, 40 percent favored Clinton's plan while 55 percent opposed it.
A Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday also found that nearly seven in 10 support a public option in healthcare reform, even tough fewer than three in 10 would opt for it over their current insurance.
And in other good news for Obama, a slim majority - 51 percent - said they understand the president's proposals. Forty-six percent are confused by it.
The CNN poll also found some troubling news for Obama. Fifty-four percent said they believe Obama's plan would increase the amount they spend on healthcare. A quarter said it would remain the same and 17 percent said it would decrease.
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Advocates for a single payer option in healthcare reform are taking to the streets, so to speak, and confronting members of Congress while they are home in their districts during this week's recess.
The latest member was Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.). On Sunday, Ros-Lehtinen was speaking at an event about Iran and Israel when she was confronted by a member of the group "Single Payer Action."
Check out the video below. Looks like the activist was escorted out of the event and Ros-Lehtinen carried on with her remarks.
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The Laborers' International Union of North America is launching ads this week against taxing employee benefits to pay for healthcare reform.
The group is targeting Democratic Sens. Max Baucus and Kent Conrad, two big players in the healthcare fight, by running television and radio ads in Montana and North Dakota.
Check out the Baucus ad below. The television ads will run on broadcast and cable starting on Tuesday through Thursday or Friday. A spokesman for the Laborers said they may extend the ad buy to keep the ads on the air.
The group is also running radio ads in both states through July 4.
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) likened Democratic healthcare proposals to President Obama's stimulus package on Saturday, calling both detrimental to the economy.
McConnell, delivering the weekly Republican radio address, credited Democrats for trying to tackle healthcare reform. But he said Democrats' plans are too expensive.
"Throughout this debate, the administration's central argument has been that America needs health care reform for the sake of the economy," he said. "Yet according to independent estimates, every health care proposal Democrats on Capitol Hill have offered would only hurt the economy."
Earlier this week the Congressional Budget Office found that two leading Democratic healthcare proposals cost more than $1 trillion over ten years.
That led Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to announce that he plans to cut $600 billion from his healthcare legislation, which topped $1.6 trillion in the CBO report.
McConnell said the bills will likely cost more.
"The total cost would be much higher, burying us in deeper and deeper debt," the senator said. "And yet Democrats still want to rush the process. When it comes to healthcare reform, the Democratic motto is clear: rush and spend, rush and spend."
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that a "public option" will be included in House healthcare reform legislation, it just might not be called that.
Speaking at her weekly press conference, Pelosi said: "I have every confidence that we will have a public option" coming out of the House bill.
Pelosi went on to acknowledge it "may not be called a public option" but insisted it will have the same effect and will "level the playing field."
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Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) had some kind words for Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) Wednesday morning as Kennedy's Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee began the mark-up of healthcare legislation.
Dodd is acting as chairman of the committee in Kennedy's absence as the Massachusetts Democrat continues to fight brain cancer.
"Sen. Kennedy, our great friend and colleague," Dodd said. "I know all of us, and believe me, no one more than I, wish he were sitting in this chair here this morning to be presiding over this markup."
Check out the video here, courtesy of C-SPAN's Video Library.
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As Republicans prepare to roll out their healthcare alternative on Wednesday, House Minority Leader John Boehner penned an op-ed in the Pittsburgh Tribune that outlines its principles.
The editorial is interesting because it lays out the GOP plan in broad terms and seems equally focused on attacking the Democrats plan for increasing spending and creating a "government take over of healthcare."
Here are the major tenets of the GOP plan, according to Boehner.
We'll lower costs by offering incentives to help Americans who do not have access to quality health care get the coverage they can afford. We'll give states tools to design programs that make health care coverage more affordable for everyone while cutting regulations so insurance companies compete for your business and you can shop around for the best coverage and price.
We'll reduce costs and expand access to quality care by providing small businesses better options to make health care coverage available for employees and their families. By letting small businesses band together through associations and purchase health insurance for workers at a lower cost, just like large corporations do, more families than ever will enjoy health care coverage previously unavailable to them.
We'll root out health care waste, fraud and abuse, which cost taxpayers billions, and reform medical liability rules that cost families millions each year -- millions that line the pockets of trial lawyers at the expense of patients and doctors....
And Boehner also highlights what has been one of the GOP's top talking points, that their plan will keep "government bureaucrats out of the medical decision-making process" and "preserves the doctor-patient relationship."
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