In a reversal, Rep. Dennis Kucinich says he’ll vote for healthcare bill

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Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat who has been critical of the president’s healthcare plans for not going far enough, announced Wednesday that he will vote for the House’s final bill -- offering leaders in that chamber their first switch from a ‘no’ to a ‘yes’ as a key vote nears this week.

The Ohio congressman, who voted against the healthcare bill that the House passed in November, complained that it contained no ‘public option’’ as an alternative to private health insurance coverage. He is among a handful of Democrats whom House leaders are attempting to win over on the imminent second, and perhaps final, vote on healthcare.

‘Some have speculated that I may be, this time, in the position of casting a deciding vote,’’ Kucinich said at a Capitol Hill news conference Wednesday morning. ‘I know that I have to make a decision, not on the bill as I would like to see it, but as it is.’

Kucinich said that he has ‘doubts about the bill. This is not the bill I wanted to support.’

However, he said that after careful discussions with President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and his family, ‘I have decided to cast a vote in favor of the legislation.’

Kucinich traveled to Ohio with Obama aboard Air Force One this week, joining the president for a campaign-style pitch for the healthcare legislation, which the House is near approving if leaders can hold a razor-thin vote.

‘I believe healthcare is a civil right,’’ Kucinich said. ‘I’ve spent my life struggling for the rights of working-class people and for healthcare.’’

Kucinich cited his own struggle with Crohn’s disease and how he had learned the benefits of taking charge of his own healthcare.

‘There are those who believe that healthcare is a privilege, based on the ability of those who can pay,’’ he said -- calling this ‘the model’’ that Obama is presenting with his plan to insure 30 million more Americans. And there are those who believe, as he does, that it is a basic right, he said

Pelosi will need 216 votes to win passage of the healthcare bill – and if all members who voted yes on the first measure vote yes again this week, she will have that vote.

However, among 15 Democrats who voted yes on the first vote, leaders are concerned about losing a handful on the second vote. And among the 37 currently seated Democrats who voted no on the first round, there is a target of 16 who are publicly undecided and whom Pelosi hopes to flip to ‘yes’ votes. Kucinich was among them.

-- Mark Silva