Sep 10, 2009 4:33 pm US/Central
Obama's Ex-Doc: Push For Public Insurance Option
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Dr. David Scheiner, President Obama's former physician, says Obama isn't pushing strongly enough for the so-called public insurance option.
CBS
The healthcare debate raged on Thursday, and the criticism of -- or the support for – President Obama is falling largely along party lines.
Some aren't happy that the president is reaching out to Republicans.
CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery found out why the president's longtime family doctor is upset with his former patient.
Dr. David Scheiner said he was frustrated to hear the president is still reaching out to political foes who ultimately want to see him fail.
"The Republicans are bitterly opposed to anything. They hate the ground he walks on, the air he breathes," Scheiner said.
The man who was Barack Obama's family doctor for two decades says he hasn't talked to him since he moved to the White House last January. But this longtime social activist is frustrated by the state of the current health care debate, especially by those critics who call Obama names like socialist.
To say "that he is a socialist is incredibly stupid," the physician said. "He's too conservative, as far as I'm concerned. Maybe I'm the socialist."
At the age of 71, Scheiner still sees 4,000 patients a year in his Hyde Park practice. He's been known to pay for medicine out of his own pocket for uninsured patients who have no other way to get it.
He strongly believes that health care is a human right that the government ought to guarantee. But Scheiner fears the White House will settle for a program that leaves millions of Americans uninsured -- and that lacks a public insurance option.
"I think they could take an example from Lyndon Johnson -- Lyndon Johnson broke legs," Scheiner said. "I think they have to make them an offer they can't refuse."
Despite his frustration, Scheiner said he's confident the president may yet be able to rescue the cause of universal health care.
"I think in his heart of hearts, he knows what the right thing is," he said. "He's extraordinarily bright, and he is compassionate. But he's pragmatic. The pragmatic part of him, and his pragmatic counselors, have gotten control."
Dr. Scheiner acknowledges that key policy decisions are ultimately being made by the President. But he blames White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and senior advisor David Axelrod, among others, for urging Obama to deal with his Republican opponents, instead of trying to break their legs.
With that fiery rhetoric, you see why Scheiner's becoming a star of cable TV news.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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