{"id":8549,"date":"2009-10-26T21:46:19","date_gmt":"2009-10-27T03:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=8549"},"modified":"2009-10-26T22:03:04","modified_gmt":"2009-10-27T04:03:04","slug":"delegation-sans-teague-expresses-excitement-over-public-option","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/10\/delegation-sans-teague-expresses-excitement-over-public-option\/","title":{"rendered":"Delegation, sans Teague, expresses excitement over public option"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"U.S.

U.S. Rep. Harry Teague (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

U.S. Rep. Harry Teague<\/a>, D-N.M., was the only member of New Mexico\u2019s delegation in Washington who wasn\u2019t quick to praise an announcement earlier today that a public option will be included in the Senate version of the health-care reform bill.<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced earlier today<\/a> that he would include a public option in health care legislation heading toward a vote on the Senate floor. States would have the option of opting out of the system.<\/p>\n

As of the publication of this posting, Teague hasn\u2019t responded to a request for comment sent several hours ago. Meanwhile, here are the statements released by the other members of the delegation:<\/p>\n

U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman<\/a>, D-N.M.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt has always been my strong preference that we include a public insurance option. I believe it will be a very useful tool for containing health care costs,\u201d Bingaman said. \u201cI applaud Senator Reid for working hard to gain Senate support for a public plan proposal.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. Sen. Tom Udall<\/a>, D-N.M.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI applaud Majority Leader Reid for including a public option in health insurance reform legislation that will be considered by the full U.S. Senate,\u201d Udall said. \u201cA strong public option will insert honest competition into the health insurance market, and is essential to our efforts if we hope to achieve substantive reform that makes quality, affordable health insurance available to the nearly half million New Mexicans without coverage today.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile this legislation continues to be a work in progress, Majority Leader Reid\u2019s leadership in including a public option in the Senate bill brings us one step closer to the day when no American will be forced to make the impossible choice between putting food on the table and providing health-care coverage for their families,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich<\/a>, D-N.M.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSenate Majority Leader Harry Reid\u2019s announcement today that the Senate bill will include the public option is encouraging news,\u201d Heinrich said. \u201cThe majority of Americans think it is important to have a choice between a government-run health-care insurance option and private coverage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remain committed to supporting a public option, which will put pressure on private insurance companies to operate more efficiently and hold down premiums for consumers,\u201d he said. \u201cFixing our broken health insurance system is critical to the future of New Mexico\u2019s working families and our economy, and it continues to be clear that the status quo is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n<\/a>, D-N.M.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cRep. Luj\u00e1n is a strong supporter of the public option. He is encouraged that it is moving forward in the Senate, but right now his primary focus is on making sure that the House bill contains a strong public option,\u201d said Mark Nicastre, spokesman for Luj\u00e1n<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Update, 10 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n

To be fair, last week Teague spokeswoman Sara Schreiber referred me to an Albuquerque Journal article<\/a> in which Teague spoke about the public-option proposal.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what the Journal article quoted Teague as saying more than six weeks ago:<\/p>\n

\u201cTeague said that he doesn\u2019t think a public option is necessary to overhaul the health care system, and that he has serious concerns about the plan\u2019s overall cost.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018As a small-business man, one of the concerns I\u2019m going to have is how we\u2019re going to pay for it, and I\u2019d like to see the details, and what effect that will have on the thousands of small businesses in New Mexico,\u2019 Teague said.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATED: U.S. Rep. Harry Teague, D-N.M., was the only member of New Mexico\u2019s delegation in Washington who wasn\u2019t quick to praise an announcement earlier today that a public option will be included in the Senate version of the health-care reform bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[117,116],"class_list":["post-8549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-health-care","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8549\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}