Obama faces healthcare insurrection from left flank

Leading the grousing from the left has been Howard Dean, a former Democratic National Committee chairman who ran unsuccessfully for his party's presidential nomination in 2004.

Dean, a medical doctor and former governor of Vermont, in recent days has said a Senate healthcare bill that Obama supports and which is lurching toward a possible vote in coming days should be killed.

Dean and others on the left argue that the Senate legislation does not permit competition with medical insurance companies, would expand private insurers' grip on healthcare and does not really amount to reform.

His complaint came because Senate leaders have ditched a plan for a government-run insurance plan and a measure that would allow people under 65 to buy into the Medicare government insurance plan for the elderly.

SOURCE: Reuters

Nelson rejects abortion compromise as 'insufficient'

Sen. Ben Nelson told a Nebraska radio station today that the compromise language on abortion doesn't go far enough.

Speaking on KLIN, Nelson said he received compromise language from Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., who also opposes abortion. However, Nelson said: "As it is right now, without further modifications, it isn't sufficient."

Nelson said the Democratic leadership has "added some important things," including more funding to combat teen-age pregnancy and an increased tax credit for low-income families to adopt children. He says there has been a "lot of improvement on the legislation, but the basic question on the funding of abortion has not been fully answered yet."

SOURCE: USA Today Politics

Union pulls back on supporting bill

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) backed out of an event with other organizations promoting the Senate healthcare reform bill Wednesday over concerns about changes made to the legislation to accommodate centrist Democrats.

The SEIU had planned to participate in a Capitol Hill press conference along with the AARP, the liberal advocacy group Families USA, Consumers Union and the American Cancer Society Action Network. As recently as Tuesday morning, the organizations distributed an advisory to the news media that included the SEIU.

But the move by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to excise provisions of the healthcare reform bill to create a government-run public option health insurance program and to allow people between 55 and 64 years old to buy into Medicare gave the labor union pause, spokeswoman Lori Lodes said...

SOURCE: The Hill