SCHIP

via Ben Nelson Plans To Oppose Public Health Plan.

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said Friday that he will oppose legislation that would give people the option of a public health insurance plan. The move put

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.)

s him on the opposite side of two-thirds of Americans.

A poll released this week by Consumer Reports National Research Center showed that 66 percent of Americans back the creation of a public health plan that would compete with private plans. Nelson, in comments made to CQ, joins the 16 percent of poll respondents who said they oppose the plan.

Nelson also said that not only does he oppose a public health system, but he intends to go out and recruit other Democratic Senators to stand with him against the will of the majority.

Nelson’s problem, he told CQ, is that the public plan would be too attractive and would hurt the private insurance plans. “At the end of the day, the publ

ic plan wins the game,” Nelson said. Including a public option in a health plan, he said, was a “deal breaker.”

He said that it would be too attractive. That it would “hurt the private insurance plans”. There are 40 million uninsured, and at least 30 million more under-insured that right now do not give a damn about hurting the private insurance plans.These are not individuals that are uninsured, but entire families. Families that could not get check-ups for their kids without SCHIP.

Nelson’s protection of the right-wing corporatist’s interests is the same kind of thinking that won over the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore - and look where that got us.

Nelson is forcing Obama’s hand. Obama will have no choice

but to use the reconciliation process in negotiating the health care reform bill since Nelson will filibuster the vote himself. The way I understand it, the reconciliation process may be used to bypass the filibuster and go straight to cloture. It is used only for budgetary matters. Nelson must gain enough votes for a simple majority to kill public health, and looking around, he may not have such a hard time doing that. Including himself he only needs nine more, counting Al Frankin.

Lets see. Which conservative Democratic Senators might vote with him?

Mary Landrieu (LA), Mark Pryor (AR),  Bill Nelson (FL),  Blanch Lincoln (AR), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Arlan Spector (PA), Tom Carper (DE), Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), Evan Bayh (IN), Michael Bennet (CO), Mark Begich (AK), Kay Hagan (NC), Herb Kohl (WI), Claire McCaskill (MO), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), Mark Udall (CO), and Mark Warner (VA)

That’s 17 Senators that might jump on the bandwagon with Ben Nelson. Blatantly backing the insurance industry and stating that any private insurance plan would hurt them is an attempt to limit the debate and is an outrage to the millions of Americans unable to obtain even simple preventive care.

Folks, we need to get ahead of this issue and fast.  A public health system will not only raise up the poor, but it will add jobs and help revive our economy. Please write or call your Senators to persuade them that we absolutely need a public health system now.

Contact information for all U.S. Senators can be found at U.S. Senate: Senate Home.