Former DNC chair Howard Dean, long a fierce proponent of comprehensive health care reform that includes a public health insurance option, said on MSNBC moments ago that the Democrats can’t get comprehensive health care reform now and should just settle for something smaller.
“You can’t pass the Senate bill in the House, according to the speaker, and we have to respect her desires,” Dean said. “So pass something through reconciliation. It doesn’t have to be big and complicated. And it shouldn’t be. We’re not going to get the comprehensive health care bill that we had hoped we were gonna get.”
So what can Democrats get? Expansion of Medicaid, a Medicare add-on and a “good, steady down payment” on a health care system that “everyone understands,” Dean said.
“The alternative is to give up on health care reform,” Dean said.
Just do “something simple,” Dean suggested, and expand programs we already have.
“Come back and do comprehensive reform later,” he said.
Here’s the video:
