Huff Po is reporting that Senators Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.) are the latest to indicate support for the use of reconciliation to pass health care reform legislation that includes a public option.
While they have not officially signed on to the "letter", this is certainly good news in that we are now up to 13 Democratic senators who have publicly indicated support for using reconciliation for Heath Care Reform, including a public option.
Klobuchar mentions supporting the President's bipartisan effort and negotiated vs. Medicare rates for the public option. While I disagree regarding negotiated vs Medicare rates, at least she's publicly supporting the House's version of the PO via reconciliation.
The fact that Senate support has gone from 4 to 13 in one day is good news. Now, only 37 to go, sigh.
The good thing about this letter is that is forces our Senators to take a public stand. Earlier they got a pass, as the failure of the PO, Medicare Buy-In, etc. were put on Lieberman and Nelson. Now our Democratic senators can no longer fly under the radar.
Please call your Senators now and demand that they support reconciliation to improve the Senate bill - including the public option, Medicare buy-in or whatever else you support.
From HuffPO
Huffington Post
The Minnesota Independent published part of a prepared statement from Klobuchar:
I would want to make sure that the bill contains the Medicare care cost reform measures included in the existing bill. I am also supportive of the President's efforts to forge a bipartisan agreement. We must reduce health care costs for the people of this country.
I support the House bill version of the public option which is based on negotiated rates. I do not support a public option based on Medicare rates because it exacerbates geographic disparities that already hurt Minnesota.
Susan Sullam, a spokeswoman for Sen. Cardin said Wednesday that "Senator Cardin has always been for a strong public option. He also has long thought reconciliation was a viable option for passing strong health care reform."