Sen. Lincoln Asks Constituents To Join Her On Health Care Chat Saturday

Sen. Blanche Lincoln is asking her supporters to join her for an online chat about health care Sunday night.

"Later this month, the full Senate will begin consideration of health insurance reform and I have made it clear that I will only support the final version if it is best for my constituents in Arkansas," she wrote in a letter to her supporters today. "As we move to the next stage of this debate, I want to hear from you."

In the letter, Lincoln reprised her talking point from the week that she voted for the Senate Finance Committee version of the bill "not because it was a perfect bill but because it was a major step toward improving health care for Arkansas families."

The chat can be found here and will be held Sunday at 5 p.m. central time.

Portions of her email after the jump.

I plan to evaluate the final version of health insurance reform based on four principles that are deeply rooted in Arkansas:

* I want to ensure that it actually reduces the deficit according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
* I want to put patients and doctors back in the driver's seat for medical decisions, not government bureaucrats in a national plan or insurance company bureaucrats who regularly reject treatment for pre-existing conditions.
* I also want to make sure that future health care costs for Arkansas families go down, not up.
* I want to be able to assure our seniors that cuts in Medicare waste and inefficiencies will not result in cuts to your benefits and coverage.

...

I really hope you will participate on Sunday. I may not get to respond to every question and comment online, but this will be the first of many efforts to give you opportunities to weigh in on every stage of the health insurance reform debate.