'Too many Americans are struggling to make ends meet,' Feinstein says. Feinstein joins push on health plans

It’s not just red-state Democrats who want to take aggressive steps to mend controversial provisions in Obamacare.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that she will co-sponsor a bill by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) to require insurance companies to continue offering their existing health care plans — a way to make good on President Barack Obama’s promise that consumers can keep their current coverage if they like it.


“This bill provides a simple fix to a complex problem,” Feinstein said in a statement Tuesday, calling Landrieu’s proposal a “commonsense fix” and urged Congress to pass it “quickly.”

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But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has no plans to bring Obamacare delay bills to the floor, and most Senate Democrats appear to be waiting until the end of the month — the date by which the administration has promised to fix the problematic health care website — to demand major delays to the law’s implementation.

Feinstein’s support is more evidence that an increasing number of congressional Democrats are getting uneasy about last month’s bungled rollout of the health care law – Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement.

In her statement, Feinstein said she has gotten 30,842 calls, e-mails and letters from her constituents on the issue. One man from Rancho Mirage, Calif., told Feinstein that he is being forced to spend more than $400 extra to pay for coverage through Obamacare that essentially mirrors his existing plan.

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“Too many Americans are struggling to make ends meet,” she said. “We must ensure that in our effort to reform the health care system, we do not allow unintended consequences to go unaddressed.”

Before Feinstein, Landrieu’s bill had three other co-sponsors, all Democrats hailing from more conservative territory: Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Mark Pryor of Arkansas.

The Republican-led House is voting on a bill that is similar to Landrieu’s plan this week, although it doesn’t explicitly require insurers to keep their existing plans. That vote is set for Friday.

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