Progressives must turn up the heat for the Single Payer option – the Weiner Amendment to HR 3200, to be introduced on floor of House in September. The Weiner Amendment substitutes the text of HR 676 the National Healthcare Act for the current text of HR 3200, the liberal compromise with the insurance industry.

See article below by liberal blogger Jane Hamsher. The debate about public option is a phony debate because there are not enough votes to pass a healthcare bill without the public option, and the White House knows this. Why start a debate about the public option? Because the grassroots pressure for Medicare for All is building and word of the Weiner amendment is spreading. Call your Congressperson and ask for a Yes vote on the Weiner amendment.

Obama picks public option fight with liberals

by Jane Hamsher

Founder, FireDogLake.com

Many people are rightly upset that the White House is sending stronger and stronger signals that they are willing to jettison a public option.  What was once the defining feature of the Obama health care plan has now been dismissed with a bipartisan flourish.  “[I]t’s both the right and the left that have become so fixated on this that they forget everything else,” he says.

There are 435 seats on the House.  Of those, 257 are filled by Democrats and 178 by Republicans.  Which means a majority is 218.  The Republicans have vowed to vote against health care, period.  The Democrats can pass health care on their own, but if they lose 40 of their own, they only have 217 votes.

Continue reading Obama Concession on ‘Public Option’ Compromise Is Attempt to Sidetrack Single Payer Option →