Friday, Nov. 06, 2009

NAACP backs public option

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The national president of the NAACP said Thursday too many North Carolina residents lack health insurance for people on Capitol Hill to delay passage of a health care overhaul bill until 2010.

Todd Jealous, who is also chief executive officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, held a news conference outside the old Capitol building in Raleigh with state chapter president the Rev. William Barber and other supporters.

They urged the state's congressional delegation to support a bill that would include a government-run insurance option that could help extend coverage to the uninsured.

Jealous was responding to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's suggestion this week that Congress may fail to meet a year-end deadline to get a bill to President Obama. Jealous said the tens of millions of people who lack insurance coverage, many of whom are poor, black or both, can't wait any longer.

"If you want an enthusastic public pushing for change in this country, then you've got to give us change now," Jealous said. "We don't want to hear about next year. We don't want to hear about 2010."

The House is poised to vote this weekend on its health care bill, a 10-year, $1.2 trillion package that in part would provide government subsidies to extend coverage to millions of uninsured Americans.

Jealous was critical particularly of U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell, D-N.C., who said Wednesday he would oppose the bill because it proposes some cuts to Medicare benefits. Democratic leaders are seeking to corral the 218 votes needed to pass the bill.

"From the day I announced my candidacy for this office, I promised to protect Medicare," Kissell said in a statement.

Jealous argued those Medicare spending reductions are designed to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse in the health care system.

"Kissell needs to be honest with the public about what those cuts are," he said. "He should be celebrating those."