Centrists may hold key to health care overhaul

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - With the national debate on health care reform growing more belligerent, many believe congressional centrists could hold the key to salvaging a plan.

But U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, a Democrat and potential swing vote, took a careful approach as he held his first forum Wednesday on the subject.

And he offered only a lukewarm response to a proposal by another moderate Democrat, Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota, to create consumer-owned nonprofit cooperatives.

Nelson answered carefully when asked if those toward the center would be able to wrest the health care debate from the fringes, although he has long prided himself on being able to bridge the partisan divide.

The goal is to "try to find a way to be friendly to the process to get something that makes sense," but not pass something ill-advised, Nelson said.

His remarks came as Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., announced that a bipartisan group of three Democrats and three Republicans is on track to craft comprehensive health care reform that can pass a divided Senate.

Conrad, who was holding his own town hall meeting Wednesday, said he believes any headway will come from the Senate Finance Committee.

"The truth is, the Democrats don't have 60 votes," he said. "If we're going to get 60 votes, we're going to need help."

Nelson, one of the more conservative Democrats, has not been an enthusiastic supporter of the Democratic-backed health care overhaul plan. His position as a potential swing vote has drawn national attention to Nebraska, with competing groups launching television ad campaigns in recent weeks. That led Nelson to air his own ad assuring residents that he will only support a plan that keeps spending under control, helps small businesses and "works for Nebraska."

So far, he has not found a proposal he is willing to back.

Nelson has expressed concern that a so-called public option, which would create a government-run insurance plan to compete with those offered by the health insurance industry, would eventually lead to a single-payer, federal health care system - a possibility he has called a "deal breaker."

He didn't write off entirely the idea of cooperatives, which would sell insurance in competition with private industry in a plan designed to replace the public option proposal. He noted that Blue Cross Blue Shield got its start as a co-op and acknowledged the success of some other health care cooperatives.

"I've talked to Senator Conrad about it," Nelson said. "I want to make sure it will work."

Nelson was an insurance lawyer and consultant before he entered politics and served as executive vice president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. He was also a former Nebraska insurance commissioner.

Some groups say his insurance background and the campaign contributions he has received from that industry could skew his perspective. Nelson says his lengthy association with the insurance industry makes him more knowledgeable on the issue.

More than 1,000 people showed up for his meeting held in an Omaha lecture hall that could hold only 350. Overflow crowds filed into adjourning rooms where they could hear audio of the meeting. Still others were forced to linger outside.

Such a meeting led by a Democrat in Nebraska - long considered a Republican bastion - would seem ripe for the same raucous shouting matches seen at other public meetings in recent weeks. But the most volume came from occasional applause from both sides of the debate and a brief clamor between two questioners toward the end of the meeting

Nelson said he never expected problems. He does, however, have eight more meetings to go through September.

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Associated Press Writer Dave Kolpack in Milnor, N.D., contributed to this report.