Published: November 13, 2009 12:39 am      

Dean talks health care: Former DNC chair is keynote speaker at annual event

There is a reason why President Barack Obama won Indiana in last year’s general election according to Dan Parker. That reason ... Howard Dean.

Dean was the chairman of the Democrat National Committee and had a plan to get Obama into the White House. Indiana, Parker said, was part of that plan.

“He was very instrumental in Indiana turning blue for President Obama,” said Parker, chairman of the Indiana Democratic Party. “He had a plan and he executed it. One of the state’s which was a beneficiary of that plan was Indiana.”

Dean, who was also the former governor of Vermont and a Democrat presidential candidate in 2004, was the keynote speaker at Thursday night’s annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner held at The Grand in downtown New Albany. The event was hosted by the Floyd County Democratic Party.

Dean, who first met a handful of supporters at The Windsor Restaurant before making his way to The Grand, had one topic on his agenda during his 25-minute speech — the recent health care bill which narrowly passed the House of Representatives and is now headed to the Senate.

Dean said the bill which was passed “is a pretty good bill” because it includes a public insurance option. He said without a public option, it’s not health care reform.

He said millions of Americans are already on single-payer, government run health care — veterans who receive health care from the Veterans Administration and senior citizens who depend on Medicare.

“There are 57 percent of the American people who want a public option. It’s about choice and I think we deserve that,” he said.

Dean, a physician, said when he was governor of Vermont, a health care bill passed which guaranteed people could not be turned away by insurance companies for a pre-existing condition, and all children 18-and-under who live in a household with an annual income of $66,000 or less, were guaranteed health insurance.

While the House passed the bill, it is a long way from becoming law.

“We have a lot of work to do on this bill. This is just the beginning of the fight,” he said.

Dean also attended a fundraiser for Louisville Congressman John Yarmuth before speaking at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner.



COCHRAN HONORED

Bill Cochran, who served in the Indiana House of Representatives for 36 years before his defeat in 2008, was honored at Thursday night’s dinner. The annual chairman’s award, given each year to a deserving Democrat, will now be known as the William C. Cochran Award.

“Bill Cochran was the go-to guy in the House,” said Kathy Smith, a former Indiana state senator. “In politics there are workhorses and showhorses. Bill Cochran was a workhorse in the Indiana House of Representatives.”

Cochran thanked the crowd for its support. But, he said, it’s not necessary to pay tribute to someone who was doing “what they are suppose to be doing.”

This year’s recipient was Lamar Dowell.