HELP Bill Progress: Lower CBO Score w/ Public Option, Pressure on Hagan Continues

by: tparty

Thu Jul 02, 2009 at 10:00:07 AM EDT

As Sen. Dodd hinted last week, he went back to the Congressional Budget Office after their initial $1+ trillion price tag for a plan with no public option to get a plan with a public option scored. The result? With a public option now included, the cost has been cut significantly:

Democrats on a key Senate Committee outlined a revised and far less costly health care plan Wednesday night that includes a government-run insurance option and an annual fee on employers who do not offer coverage to their workers.

The plan carries a 10-year price tag of slightly over $600 billion, and would lead toward an estimated 97 percent of all Americans having coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office, Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and Chris Dodd said in a letter to other members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The AP obtained a copy....

"We must not settle for legislation that merely gestures at reform," the two Democrats wrote. "We must deliver on the promise of true change."

Sen. Dodd promised the MLN community last month that he would stand up for the absent Sen. Kennedy and fight for a strong public option in the HELP committee, and from all appearances he is delivering on that promise. This new CBO score should change the debate significantly.

In the meantime, there is more good news coming out of the HELP committee fight. One is the massive pressure being brought to bear against the lone holdout for the public option in that committtee, Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC), by NC breast cancer survivors and the local and national netroots:

Kay Hagan has been the sole obstacle keeping a public plan from coming out of the Senate HELP Committee.   On Friday,  Pam Spaulding and breast cancer survivors of North Carolina will go to Kay Hagan's office carrying their signatures and those of the people who stand with them, asking Hagan to stand with us, too.  We want to get 20,000 signatures of support for them to deliver in the next 48 hours.

We survived because we had the medical treatment that many of our sisters who died did not.   As survivors we want to speak out and demand access to health care for the women whose battle is before them.

Please join with with us.

And finally, early next week, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) will finally be sworn in. One of the Senate committee slots being reserved for him? Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. He will be replacing Sen. Whitehouse (D-RI) who has been temporarily filling his empty slot there, but will hopefully be an invaluable ally for Sen. Dodd and Sen. Kennedy as they continue their fight to get to get a strong public option out of committee.