Facing ’10 run, Lincoln touts health measure

GOP sees her as vulnerable

— U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, up for re-election next year, is touting her vote for the Senate version of the health-care overhaul as a good thing for Arkansas.

The Democrat from Little Rock says it’s a step toward helping tens of thousands of Arkansans either get health insurance or lower their costs if they already have coverage.

“I’ve worked hard to get this bill the way it is,” Lincoln said. “I think people realize as well that this health-care issue is too important to lay aside and walk away. I want to make sure we come out at the top of the heap.”

While there is no government-run insurance plan - which has become known as the public option - in the bill, Republicans still think the health-care issue will hurt Lincoln at the polls.

“Even if [Arkansans] are better off, or happier, with the bill in its current form, there is still the whole fact that she has refused to make a decision until the last minute,” said Chase Dugger, executive director of the state GOP. “She doesn’t listen to anybody. She doesn’t make up her mind.”

Lincoln said “that’s just ludicrous” and that there is a reason she didn’t declare a position immediately. The issue has been debated for months in Washington and at town-hall meetings across the country, including in Arkansas. She cast her vote to help pass the Senate version Thursday. The Senate bill must now be reconciled with the House version.

“Look how much this thing has changed,” Lincoln said. “If I had said I support it in the beginning, where would I be in terms of making an impact on behalf of Arkansans and on Americans. That’s so important. [Republicans] realize it’s a good bill, but they have to find something to criticize.”

Lincoln is seeking her third six-year term in 2010.

There are seven Republicans who have announced their intentions to seek the GOP nomination for Lincoln’s position. Another may jump in soon.

Former state Sen. Jim Holt, R-Springdale, recently announced “U.S. Senate fundraisers.” Holt said he’s “definitely leaning” toward joining the Senate race and expects to make an announcement by the first part of January. Holt was the Republican nominee against Lincoln in 2004, losing 56 percent to 44 percent. He lost a race for lieutenant governor in 2006.

Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, a Democrat, for weeks has declined to say whether he’s thinking about making a primary challenge against Lincoln, and he wouldn’t comment last week.

Alan Hughes, state director of the AFL-CIO, said Halter asked him “who do I need to talk to if I was going to” challenge Lincoln. Hughes said he gave Halter some names.

“But I told him it’s his job to get out and lobby and campaign,” Hughes said.

L a b o r l e a d e r s , w h o have supported Lincoln in past campaigns, have been lukewarm on her in recent months. They didn’t like it when she announced she wouldn’t support a bill that would help unions organize. They also wanted a health bill to include a public option.

Regardless, Hughes said labor is happy that she voted for the health bill.

“The main thing is to keep it moving forward,” he said. “It’s still got to go to the House. It’s not exactly what we want, but there is always time for change later.”

Hughes said labor leaders will decide at their March convention whether to support Lincoln.

Lincoln has been viewed as one of the more vulnerable senators in 2010, given vocal opposition from some voters to the health plan and that the state supported Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain by a wide margin in 2008.

She gained business support earlier this year when she came out against the union legislation, but since then business leaders have questioned the health bill.

Kenny Hall, executive vice president of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, said changes in the health bill haven’t quashed criticism.

“My impression is that there still are grave concerns among the business community,” Hall said. “It’s not addressing the cost issue, the cost of health care itself as much as [lowering insurance] premiums for the lower-income [people].”

He said different business leaders have different views of Lincoln.

Lincoln touted numerous things about the bill in the Senate. The points she makes include:

Reduced costs for families. If things are left unchanged, a family of four with an annual income of $48,367, or twice the federal poverty line, would pay $23,600 in annual health premiums and out-of-pocket costs by 2016.

But, she said, under the Senate bill, those combined costs would drop to $9,929 by 2016.

She said those calculations came from an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and were based on Congressional Budget Office figures.

Health insurance exchanges, which will include at least one nonprofit plan in each state. She said these will help small businesses afford to offer health insurance to their employees. The federal government will offer tax credits to reduce the cost of buying from those exchanges. She said 50,000 small businesses in Arkansas and 260,000 workers will qualify. She said it’s an idea she’s pushed since 2004.

No denials for pre-existing conditions and no worries for small businesses that premiums would explode if one employee got sick.

Health overhaul has been a top priority of President Barack Obama.

Republicans seeking to oust Lincoln have exploited that.

State Sen. Gilbert Baker, R-Conway, sent out a fundraiser letter this month critical of Lincoln’s support of “government run ... Obamacare.”

Without the public option, Baker said Friday, “the bill is still bad. It has a trillion-dollar price tag. It’s more government-involvement in our lives.”

Democrats have contended that the health bill will be “deficit-neutral” and paid for by a variety of methods, such as more taxes on people making more than $200,000 a year and reductions in other areas of health-care costs.

But Baker said he’s skeptical and worries that it will increase the federal deficit. He said he has “no confidence” in Lincoln’s numbers about family health costs going down. He said tax credits are good but they shouldn’t come with a government mandate that everyone have health insurance.

Baker said it’s “hard to say” whether the fierce health-care debate will continue through the November 2010 election. Much of that will depend on whether other issues emerge, he said.

“It is going to be an issue,” said state Sen. Kim Hendren, R-Gravette, another Republican candidate.

He cites the cuts to Medicare.

Lincoln says “core” Medicare benefits won’t be cut, but the bill would “eliminate $118 billion in overpayments” over 10 years for things such as “health club memberships.”

Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat who has said he’ll support Lincoln if she’s the party’s nominee, has said he opposes the additional Medicaid costs to states the bill would require. The bill would make more adults eligible for Medicaid.

Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said the cost in state general revenue would be $100 million a year by 2017. DeCample said Beebe has no opinion on the overall bill.

Lincoln said higher state costs wouldn’t kick in until 2019, after five years of the federal government paying just about all of the expansion’s costs.

“The state is going to share some responsibility,” Lincoln said. “We can’t get all Americans covered without help from the states. It’s always been a shared responsibility.”

Conrad Reynolds of Conway, another GOP candidate, said “the fallout from the health-care bill is still going to be determined” but will be a “huge issue” in 2010.

“Government running our health care [will be a] disservice to all Americans,” he said.

Asked why he would describe the plan as “government-run” without a public option, Reynolds said a government-run plan “appears to be the end-goal” of Democrats.

Other Republicans who have announced their candidacies for Lincoln’s position are Curtis Coleman of Little Rock, Fred Ramey of Searcy, Buddy Rogers of Rogers, and Tom Cox of Little Rock.

Through the third quarter of this year, Lincoln reported that she has raised $5.8 million. None of the seven Republicans have raised close to $1 million.

U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., predicted that the health bill, which he also voted for, will help Lincoln.

“I think when people look at this legislation they will say, ‘You know what? This is good for Arkansas,’” Pryor said. “I think Sen. Lincoln is going to run a very good campaign. I said, ‘Blanche, you need to run this election and be yourself and be the senator that you are. You are a moderate senator who turned out to be the swing vote on a lot of things.’”

State Democratic Party Chairman Todd Turner of Arkadelphia said he doubts that health care will be an issue next November.

“I think [Republicans] will be on to complaining about something else,” he said.

But Dugger, the GOP executive director, said health care will remain a big issue for a long time in the campaign.

“I don’t see how something that ignited a fire on both sides can die down that quickly or easily,” he said.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/27/2009

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