Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon is fighting the good fight out there for progressives but isn't getting enough credit or support, in my opinion, for his efforts. He is currently trying to get language into the floor bill to open up the exchanges to anyone who doesn't like their current insurance. Without this, a public option would not be available to most people even if we did get a robust version onto the floor.
Yesterday, the Democratic Senate leadership sent out its daily talking points to its members' offices. Among them was the relatively anodyne argument that, "Under our [health-care reform] plan, if you like what you have you can keep it, but if you don’t there will be affordable choices for you that can’t be taken away."
The only problem with this talking point: It isn't true. Sen. Ron Wyden's communications director, Jennifer Hoelzer, has spent the past few months fighting for her boss's amendment that would make it true, and she blasted a quick fact-check to 490 addresses on the reply all:
I just wanted to flag for colleagues that their bosses should be careful using the talking point that under the Dem bill, Americans who don’t like the coverage they have, will be able to choose something else.
As CBO Director Elmendorf indicated last week, under the current legislation, seven years after implementation, more than 90 percent of Americans will remain barred from shopping for insurance in the exchange. This means that not only will MOST Americans be stuck with the coverage they have – whether they like it or not – if reform establishes a public option, more than 90 percent of Americans won’t be able to choose it. As many of you know, this is why Senator Wyden has been fighting so hard to get his Free Choice proposal into the bill, so that we can tell our constituents that if you don’t like the coverage they have, they can choose something better. But right now, that’s not the case.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Jen
We should be pressuring for this in any calls we're making to Obama, Reid, and any other Senator or Congressperson we're calling.
Request that they put the public option AND an open exchange into the legislation that reaches the floor (not as an amendment after the fact - See Ezra Klein about why that's important)
f Reid includes some kind of public option in the compromise bill, then it will take 60 votes to strip it out on the floor. If he does not include some type of public option in the bill, then it will take 60 votes to add it on the floor. In other words, getting your priorities met during the Senate negotiations means you don't have to face the filibuster, and your opponents do. It's a huge advantage.
PS: for you Wyden-haters who say he doesn't have the votes for this - well that's the same thing they're saying about the public option, so GET ON THE PHONE. It's a good change to make, and we should push for it.