Congressman Grijalva (D-Arizona) continues fight for a strong public option "I am not rolling over"

[Better Believe It]

Pelosi accepts defeat on robust public option
Rick Ungar
The Policy Page
October 28, 2009

In what had already been shaping up as a bad week for the public insurance option, things just got decidedly worse.

The Hill is reporting that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will announce tomorrow that she does not have the votes to pass a health care bill with a robust public option and will go with the version proposed by the Congressional Blue Dog conservatives.

The public option proposed by House conservative Democrats – and agreed to in the compromise bill presented by the Energy & Commerce Committee – requires the administrators of a government health insurer to negotiate rates individually with hospitals and doctors rather than presetting payments at Medicare rates (the ‘robust’ option) or Medicare rates plus 5%.

While many Congressional progressives, who had previously threatened to vote against any bill that did not include the public option based on Medicare rates, were staying silent, the co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), commented -

"I am not rolling over. I will insist on a Medicare-plus-5 amendment on the floor so that the full caucus can vote on it. We are hopeful that the Rules Committee will allow this amendment, which has tremendous public support, to be voted on for the record."


http://trueslant.com/rickungar/2009/10/28/pelosi-accepts-defeat-on-robust-public-option/