By Lee Brodie of Corporate Research Group, www.corporateresearchgroup.com

In a setback for progressives, Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe said she would vote with fellow Republicans to block the Democratic health care overhaul if changes are not made to the version Majority Leader Harry Reid outlined this week.

On Monday Reid announced a version of health care reform that included a government-run “public option” to compete with private health insurance plans. Under Reid’s plan, states could opt out of the government insurance, but Snowe said Tuesday that’s not good enough.

Snowe is currently the only Republican in Congress who has voted for any of the early Democratic versions in either the Senate or House.

Meanwhile, Sen. Joe Lieberman said Tuesday that unless the bill changes substantially, he too would vote with Senate Republicans against a motion to allow a vote on final passage of the bill.

The Democrats will need 60 votes to get the bill past a threatened Republican filibuster, so both votes are likely crucial.

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This entry was posted by Adam V. Russo on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 1:45 pm and is filed under Health Care Legislation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.