Kratovil Opposes New Push To Pass Sweeping Health Care Reform

WASHINGTON - After a week of pressure from both sides, Rep. Frank Kratovil said Friday he's unlikely to go along with the current plan to get a broad health care bill through Congress, suggesting instead that the legislation be split into a series of smaller bills.

In an interview with Capital News Service, Kratovil, D-Stevensville, said he recognizes the need to move the process forward, but argued that the plan advanced by President Obama and the Democratic congressional leadership allows Republicans to continue to obstruct health care reform on a purely partisan basis.

"There are those who want to make this a political statement about the president and so forth and defeat it simply for those reasons," Kratovil said. "I think the process that we're talking about doing, in some ways, allows them the ability to do so."

Kratovil was one of 39 Democrats who voted no when the House passed a health care bill, 220-215, in November. Instead of being swayed by party leaders in need of votes, Kratovil appears ready to vote no again.

Although details of the strategy are still being worked out, Democrats hope to first convince the House to pass the Senate version of the bill. Party leaders have said they hope to then pass a set of fixes to the bill using the controversial reconciliation process in the Senate, which would allow legislation to pass with only 51 votes rather than the 60 needed to break a Republican filibuster.

GO HERE to read more.