Reid Repeats Call For Health Reform, Says GOP Has No Plan

By Marianna Levyash - Talk Radio News Service

At a Senate Leadership conference Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said that something has to be done about reforming the nation's healthcare system.

"What we are trying to do is preserve a good healthcare option," said Reid, who generally favors having a public option be an element of reform.

Reid stated that members of the GOP have not presented any type of reform plan to the American public.

"Republicans don't have a plan...they want to keep things the way they are," he said.

Pelosi Agrees To 72-Hour Review Before Voting On Healthcare Legislation

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico - Talk Radio News Service

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she “absolutely” supports a 72-hour waiting period to allow Congress to read over the healthcare reform legislation before a final vote.

On Wednesday, Democratic members of the Senate Finance Committee rejected an amendment to put the bill online for a three-day waiting period.

House lawmakers then introduced a petition that urged Pelosi to hold a vote on the bill and give members of Congress and the public time to review the bill in its final form.

When asked by a reporter on Thursday about whether or not she supported a measure to put the final bill online for 72 hours she said, “Absolutely, without question.” Following the press conference, a spokesman for the Speaker confirmed that Pelosi had agreed to allow the waiting period.

The Speaker's comments marked a slight departure from her position earlier this summer to allow 48 hours of review on healthcare legislation before bringing it to a vote.

Reid, Solis Join Forces With Healthcare Providers To Push For Reform

By Laura Smith, University of New Mexico - Talk Radio News Service

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis joined healthcare workers and healthcare providers Wednesday to support making healthcare affordable for Americans this year.

Reid and Solis stood with nurses, doctors and leading healthcare providers before they delivered hospital scrub tops to Congress inscribed with written messages from thousands of frontline healthcare workers across the country.

Healthcare workers and administrators launched the “Every Patient Matters” campaign Wednesday through the Partnership for Quality Care, to ensure that America’s direct caregivers have a voice in the debate on how to provide quality and affordable healthcare to all Americans.

Dennis Rivera, chairman of SEIU Healthcare, said that with Reid’s help, healthcare reform will be passed this year.

"Senator Reid is an incredible advocate on behalf of working women and men of Nevada and throughout this country, and a leader who knows we can do what is right. We can pass healthcare reform this year," Rivera said.

Reid said there were 10,000 scrub tops from around the country, and that insurance companies make the most money in the healthcare field. He said people ask why insurance companies do better than any other business in America during these hard times.

“The reason is that [the] insurance industry is not subject to the anti-trust laws we have in our country. More than a hundred years ago, big businesses were running our country...Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust law under a Republican president, Theodore Roosevelt, because big business had gotten out of hand,” he said.

Donnetta Miller, a registered nurse from Nevada, presented Reid an inscribed scrub top to thank him for being “a champion on getting healthcare reform passed.”

Miller wore a shirt that read, “As a healthcare provider, I wish to voice my demand for healthcare reform. This must pass this year, this congress. Our patients cannot wait another year. We’re swiftly approaching collapse of the Medicare/Medicaid system. Our seniors, our patients deserve healthcare reform. Donnetta Miller."

Solis said she understands the importance and how pivotal insurance reform is for the nation right now.

“Asthma, diabetes, obesity, cancers, HIV and AIDS. All these things and illnesses prevent people from getting healthcare right now, or they die from not getting healthcare. And we can’t afford to leave that be the status quo. We need to change it, “ she said.

Diane Palmer, a nurse from Maryland, held up a scrub top and read a message that a nurse from Seattle had written on it. The message said, “My 12 year old has chronic health issues. She runs the risk of meeting her max coverage without healthcare reform. We could face a life or death situation. It takes a village to raise a child. It takes a nation to protect one. Please protect my child."

George Halverson, Chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente, said America is the only country in the industrialized world that has not created universal coverage.

“We are the only country in the industrialized world where our people need to worry that a healthcare event is going to drive them into a solvency or bankruptcy. That is wrong,” he said.

Pelosi Gets Emotional In Response To Heated Rhetoric

Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) became uncharacteristically emotional Thursday when asked how she felt about the increasingly hostile political climate. Pelosi said she is concerned over the heated rhetoric because she has seen it turn violent in the past.

"I have concerns about some of the language that is being used because I saw this myself in the late '70s in San Francisco," Pelosi said during her weekly press conference, suddenly becoming teary eyed. "This kind of rhetoric was very frightening."

Although Pelosi did not specify, this seemed to refer to the murders of gay activist and member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Harvey Milk and city mayor George Moscone in 1978. Pelosi was a California based Democratic activist during the 1970‘s and knew both MIlk and Moscone at the time of their murder. She went on to say that government officials should be cautious with statements made to the public.

“I wish that we could all curb our enthusiasm in the statements that we make and understand that some of the ears that it’s falling on are not as balanced as the person making the statement might think,” Pelosi said.

Pelosi added she is grateful that the U.S. allows so much freedom, but noted that with that freedom comes responsibility.

“Our country is great because people can say what they think and believe,” she said. “But I also think they have a responsibility for any incitement that they may cause.”

When asked about the Senate Finance Committee’s healthcare reform proposal Pelosi said she expected to see many changes before the legislation passes through the House.

“We’re just seeing the first blush of the Senate bill,” she said. “We hope that we can persuade them to our point of view.”

Pelosi said that she expected to see a public option, although the Finance Committee bill does not contain one.

“I fully support the public option,” Pelosi said. “A public option will be in the bill that passes the House of Representatives.”

When answering questions over her position on the allegations facing the community organizing group ACORN, she said any group that receives funds from the government need to be under tough scrutiny. Pelosi said the behavior of some at ACORN was inexcusable.

“A few of the individuals at ACORN did what I think is...despicable, and in any event, totally unacceptable,” she said.

She said it will be up to the Appropriations Committee to evaluate whether or not ACORN will continue to receive government funding.

Sen. Rockefeller Says He Will Not Vote On Committee's Version Of Health Care Reform Bill

Travis Martinez, University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service

Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.V.) announced Tuesday that there is no way that he will vote for the Senate Finance Committee's health care reform bill in its current state.

"There is no way in its present form that I will vote for it, unless during the amendment process it is changed in vast amounts," Rockefeller said.

Rockefeller said he wants Americans to know that details relating to alternative health care cooperatives will be presented late Tuesday.