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A battle between liberals has broken out in the Senate over healthcare. Howard Dean, former head of the Democratic National Committee has come out in recent days urging a no vote on the bill being considered in the Senate saying that it is too geared in favor of insurance companies in it’s current incarnation. He is being joined in his protest of the bill by the Service Employees International Union, one of the most powerful unions in Washington who strongly supported Obama’s Presidential campaign. At heart is the dropping of a so-called publicly funded insurance option, meant as a consolation prize for advocates of single-payer healthcare. With the public option dropped, there seems little left resembling a reform of the current healthcare system. But former President Bill Clinton claims that there is enough good in the bill to warrant passage. A recent attempt by Republican Senators to postpone the healthcare vote until after Christmas, by snubbing a defense spending bill, failed. Democratic Senators are working hard to appease Bill Nelson, a fellow Democratic senator from Florida, who has insisted that he wants strong restrictions on insurance coverage of abortion procedures.

GUEST: Ellen R. Shaffer, Co-Director at the Center for Policy Analysis here in California