60 Plus

“Sixty plus” House members will not support a health care bill that does not include a strong public option Representative Keith Ellison, Congressional Progressive Caucus vice co-chair, said during a media call today. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz. (Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair) and Rep. Keith Ellison, DFL-Minn. joined health care expert Jacob Hacker and Campaign for America’s Future co-director Roger Hickey on a conference call on Thursday to discuss a new report that details the reasons why growing blocs of House members refuse to support a health care bill without a public insurance option.

Sixty members of the Progressive Caucus have sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius stating they won’t support a bill without a strong public option. Rep. Grijalva told the media that there are House members who not members of Progressive caucus who have said they won’t vote for bill without a public option. Ellison said health care is a “historic debate,” and that because the “stakes are so high, there is going to be a fight.” In this dynamic situation, he continued, “this is no time for progressives to get cynical about President Obama.”
Hacker discussed his new report, which details key elements of a strong public plan in the House and Senate bills and why an alternative proposal, insurance cooperative, are destined to fail. Hacker said that the false and malicious distortions of proposed legislation amounted to a “swfitboating” of health care reform. Hacker said that the public option is not an ideological litmus test, but an essential component of a serious plan to control health care costs.
Hacker’s report, which lays out the good, the not so good, and the bad in health care proposals before the Congress, is a key resource for those desiring to understand the health care debate.