I know we accomplished a huge milestone yesterday in getting Senator Reid to put in a trigger-free public option in the merged bills. That's huge, and it means that there now have to be 60 votes to strip it out of the merged bills, which likely won't happen. It would've been even tougher to amend the Senate merged bill from the floor because some of the Democratic Senators would have to find 60 votes to overcome a filibuster on the public option.
It's why so many of us in the grassroots groups, FDL, HCAN, PCCC, DFA, Moveon.org, and others fought to get in a trigger-free public option in the merged bills with the support of amazing people like you. It makes our fight easier, but it's most certainly not over yet at this point.
There's more to be done. And the WH is now on board with their support of a trigger-free public option, according to Mike Lux, although they're hesitant about Senator Reid's having the votes on the opt-out. Here's more from Mike Lux below:
- White House staffers confirmed for me this afternoon that they are backing Harry Reid's decision "100 percent." Now that's not to say they aren't a little nervous about it. I suspect that there are still some feelings by some people working in that building that progressives should have given up and rolled over, and let them cut a deal with Olympia Snowe on her trigger-written-never-to-trigger. That would have been easier than sweating what will undoubtedly be a very tough battle to get all 60 Democrats to go along with the rest of the party. But us irritating progressive folk got in the way of doing that, and now Obama knows it's time to stand and deliver. I believe my friends at the White House when they say they will do an all-out fight for this bill. They know that starting down this path, and not being able to pull it off, would be a huge embarrassment and destroy all the momentum we've built by making it this far. They are all-in, and know how much is at stake. Rahm Emanuel and Jim Messina are famous for twisting arms and doing everything in their power to get the votes that are needed, and now is their time to deliver.
- The entire progressive movement has to go all-in supporting an up or down vote on health care reform. We should try to strengthen this bill with an amendment strategy on the floor, and we should be prepared to fight for a strong, tough negotiation strategy in conference committee. But first, we should be putting every ounce of work, dollars, and muscle we can to convince all the Democrats in the Senate to support Reid on the cloture vote in the Senate. The White House and Reid are on the line to deliver, but so are we. This is a history- making fight, one of those huge moments in American history, and if we win, this progressive movement will be written about in the history books the way the big change movements of the 1960s, 1930s, 1900s, and 1860s are. This is our time to deliver, too.
It's because of you and thousands of other people like you that called, donated, canvassed, and didn't let up on the single message EVERY DAY that you wanted a trigger-free public option, that those in Washington D.C. finally took notice and realized we wouldn't give up and roll over no matter what. That's good, and it shows that grassroots pressure works from everyone in the base with the help of organizations like FDL, HCAN, DFA, PCCC, and OFA.
Now that we've got a public option in all of the committee bills, it's our job to make it the BEST public option possible, and to FIGHT to strengthen other provisions of the bill so we can get the BEST health care reform to the President's desk. We need to help President Obama get the best bill that he can get from our grassroots pressure on Members of Congress so he can sign it right on there on that desk!
It's not the time to let up in our push for the public option! Let's keep up the pressure on our elected officials to do the right thing by us on the public option. And one of them, Rep. Woolsey, needs our help in calling Members of the House today on a robust public option that's tied to Medicare plus 5% rates:
Of course, we already know the House bill will be stronger than even the version that Reid endorsed today. It will be a national plan, with all states participating from the start. But Speaker Nancy Pelosi has yet to decide whether to peg reimbursement levels to Medicare rates plus 5 percent--i.e. Medicare-plus-5--or to go with negotiated rates. Liberals prefer the former; centrists prefer the latter.
“I give [the Senate] a very positive nod for getting that far,” Woolsey told TNR this afternoon:"If the Senate can do that, the House is certain to have a public option and absolutely should be working as we can to have most robust public option available…it says to the House, ‘Don’t just go along to get along with the Senate.’ We need put out a plan that’s as strong as you can, so when we go to conference we get somewhere."
Woosley acknowledged that conference committee negotiations will inevitably pull the House bill back to the right. But she suggested that the hybrid that conference negotiations produce could still have more liberal features--it could be, for example, a national plan with Medicare-plus-5 rates from states could opt out. So why not be pushing left?
“Why should we be going backwards," she said, "when we should be going forward?”
Indeed. Why go backwards now when we can go forward in making the public option the best it can be, and strengthening other provisions of the bill? We'll be working to make sure that no bad provision gets into the final bill without notice--like the Eshoo amendment in the House bill that would ban brand name biologics from ever being available as generics. It means sick people who can't afford brand-name biologics would never be able to get them as generics.
They'd be stuck with an unaffordable biologic medicine to treat their illnesses. It's wrong, and we shouldn't stand for it as a part of the final bill. Here's more from Jane Hamsher, a breast cancer survivor who took one of those biologics, below about the high cost of the Eshoo amendment, which pleased major pharmaceutical companies:
I spoke with Dr. Anthony D. So, the Director of the Program on Global Health and Technology Access at Duke University. While at the Rockefeller for Foundation’s Health Equality program, he has played a key role in fighting for fairer intellectual property rights to make HIV/AIDS drugs available worldwide. He says that if an AIDS vaccine were developed, it would also be a biologic. And under the Eshoo/Barton amendment that passed in the House (Hagen/Enzi/Hatch in the Senate), it could “evergreen” and never fall into generic form virtually forever.
Pharmaceutical companies are trying to use healthcare reform to make sure these drugs never become “generics” and stay extremely profitable. No surprise there.
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That’s just wrong. And POP will be joining with these students to help them fight for affordable drug prices. They shouldn’t have their hands tied by protectionist legislation that puts corporate profits over access to health care.
It's one of the bad provisions in the health care reform bill that we'll be paying attention to so we can put even more grassroots pressure on our elected officials to do the right thing by not allowing major pharmaceutical companies to profit in this manner off our pain and sickness by depriving us of access to affordable medicines. If you are someone you know are on any of these drugs and are having to foot the bill, or should be taking one but can’t afford to, please let us know.
Please CALL your Representative today at (202) 224-3121! And if you can, please write letters to the editor starting today about the Eshoo amendment, and why it MUST be removed from the final conference bill. And in the letter, please ask your Representative and Senator to remove this provision from the bill.
We'll keep on fighting for what is right, and please help support our work (since we do literally work for you guys) by donating to our fund at Firedoglake! Your donations go to our living stipends, expenses, and travel costs, including awesome tools like these. You also can follow me on Twitter @slinkerwink.
UPDATE: Here's a lovely tweet from Rep. Woolsey on Twitter. Please follow her at @lynnwoolsey!
lynnwoolsey @slinkerwink The Progressive Congress is prepared to fight to keep the #PublicOption! Thank you for the call to keep up progressive efforts
4 minutes ago from HootSuite