Watching the markup of the Baucus bill on CSPAN 3. The Republicans are absolutely insane. However, Rockefeller (D-WV), the main proponent of the public option in the Senate, just finished, and he said some good things, including "I don’t think that the healthcare bill does enough to make healthcare affordable...we had a very very good discussion last night...we are making progress...I look forward to voting on amendments, as I certainly have a lot of them."
The best of his amendments are:
- 185, Rockefeller, "Strike state exchanges, multiple competing exchanges, and regional exchanges, and create one national exchange"
- 191, Rockefeller, "Strike health care cooperatives"
- 196, Rockefeller, "Increase Medicaid eligibility to 150% of poverty"
- 201, Rockefeller/Hatch, "Remove the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) from the exchange"
- 206, Rockefeller, "Allow early retirees between ages 55 and 64 to buy into Medicare"
If you're looking for something to do today, call one of these Senators on the Finance Committee and tell them to support those amendments:
MAX BAUCUS, MT
KENT CONRAD, ND
JEFF BINGAMAN, NM
JOHN F. KERRY, MA
BLANCHE L. LINCOLN, AR
RON WYDEN, OR
CHARLES E. SCHUMER, NY
DEBBIE STABENOW, MI
MARIA CANTWELL, WA
BILL NELSON, FL
ROBERT MENENDEZ, NJ
THOMAS CARPER, DE
No comments:
Post a Comment