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Democratic congressional leaders, President Barack Obama and their reform-supporting allies are this week aggressively wrangling the necessary votes to pass health insurance reform legislation.<\/p>\n Democratic congressional leaders, President Barack Obama and their reform-supporting allies are this week aggressively wrangling the necessary votes to pass health insurance reform legislation.<\/p>\n
Organizing for America — the president’s campaign operation formerly known as Obama for America and now under the auspices of the Democratic National Committee<\/a> — has focused new energy on getting supporter’s of the president’s plan to call their representatives in Congress and call into swing districts. <\/p>\n Liberal groups such as the Service Employees International Union<\/a>, AFL-CIO<\/a> and MoveOn.org<\/a> have aired ads to push for a final vote on the legislation. Drug industry trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America<\/a> (PhRMA) will also spend at least $6 million on pro-reform ads in 38 congressional districts, Politico<\/i> reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n And the White House has indicated that re-election assistance such as presidential visits and fund-raisers will be prioritized for lawmakers who support the bill, according to reports in the New York Times<\/i><\/a> and Washington Post<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n Furthermore, the SEIU and other groups have threatened to support primary challengers or third-party bids against Democrats who opt to vote against health care reform. Politico<\/i> reports<\/a> that New York’s labor-backed Working Families Party has also threatened to not endorse any candidate who does not support the legislation. This group is a major player in New York as state law allows for fusion voting — i.e., candidates’ names to appear under multiple party lines on the ballot — and the party has in the past aided in several Democrats’ narrow victories.<\/p>\n Former senior Obama campaign adviser Steve Hildebrand is even reportedly mulling<\/a> a primary challenge against Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin<\/a> (D-S.D.) if she again votes against this high-stakes measure.<\/p>\n On Monday, Vice President Joe Biden appeared at a fund-raiser in Ohio for Rep. Steve Driehaus<\/a> (D-Ohio), who voted yes in November after supporting the anti-abortion amendment offered<\/a> by Rep. Bart Stupak<\/a> (D-Mich.). While the Senate bill does not allow federal funds to be used for abortion, the restrictions are not as far-reaching as the original Stupak language; nevertheless, Democratic leadership hopes to keep Driehaus on board. <\/p>\n As Capital Eye<\/i> previously reported<\/a>, 216 House Democrats voted for the health insurance reform bill in November, while 39 House Democrats opposed it. In December, the 60 senators who are Democrats or caucus with Democrats passed<\/a> their version of the legislation. Now House Democrats are working to pass that bill, along with a budgetary measure that would make certain amendments to the Senate’s bill — which would again need the Senate’s approval before being signed into law.<\/p>\n The Democrats’ health insurance reform bill seeks to require insurance plans to meet minimum standards and require individuals to have insurance. The legislation would also extend federal subsidies for low-income Americans to buy health insurance and expand the roles of Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) — insuring millions of previously uninsured Americans. <\/p>\n Their plan also aims to prohibit health insurance companies from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions, cap citizens’ out-of-pocket expenses, require insurance companies to pay for benefits with no annual or lifetime benefit limits, provide incentives for preventive care, close the Medicare Part D “donut hole” for prescription drug coverage and allow children to remain on their parents’ health care plans longer into their 20s.<\/p>\n Democratic congressional leaders, President Barack Obama and their reform-supporting allies are this week aggressively wrangling the necessary votes to pass health insurance reform legislation. Organizing for America — the president’s campaign operation formerly known as Obama for America and now under the auspices of the Democratic National Committee — has focused new energy on getting supporter’s of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3993,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-438542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3993"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438542\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"denniskucinich.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/news\/denniskucinich.jpg\")
The same day in another part of the state, Obama rallied health care supporters. Democratic Reps. Marcia Fudge<\/a>, who supports the bill, and Dennis Kucinich<\/a>, an advocate for single-payer insurance who in November opposed the Democrats’ plan because he didn’t think it was liberal enough, accompanied Obama on Air Force One. As Obama introduced Kucinich at the event, someone in the crowd<\/a> yelled at Kucinich to “vote yes,” and Obama made sure to publicly ask Kucinich if he had heard the request. At a press conference earlier today, Kucinich (pictured right) announced that he will in fact support the bill.<\/p>\n![\"chamberlogo.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/news\/chamberlogo.jpg\")
Opponents of the plan also continue to spend big money as they attempts to convince lawmakers to kill the bill. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce<\/a>, for instance, may spend tens of millions<\/a> of dollars on ads targeting wavering lawmakers. And Republican-affiliated committees, including the National Republican Committee<\/a>, National Republican Campaign Committee<\/a> and National Republican Trust PAC<\/a>, are also airing ads aimed at persuading lawmakers to oppose the bill. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"