Sen. Blanche Lincoln held a conference call with reporters late this morning.  Most questions revolved around health care reform although the senator did spend a good deal of time talking about climate change.  More about that on the jump. 

On health care, Lincoln stressed the importance of being more efficient with health care spending.  She said that we need to make sure insurers understand they cannot withhold insurance because of a pre-existing condition or drop people just because they become ill.  When asked about all the third party groups getting involved in the debate, Lincoln said hearing from various constituencies was very important but everyone needed to “keep our eye on the ball,” and provide needed reforms.

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“I’ve been disappointed in the polarization of these different groups who either want too much or too little and they’ve just polarized around a government plan and that’s such a small part of any of this. We’ve got so many things that we can agree on and we should agree on those things and move forward,” Lincoln said. 

In terms of a final senate vote on a health care bill, Lincoln said it was unlikely to happen before Thanksgiving.  “The House is projected to have a vote on this on Saturday, so we’re waiting to see what the bill is going to be,” she said.  “We don’t know. I know what we did in finance and I was very proud of what we did. I felt we made great strides in improving and expanding health care accessibility and quality. We did so without adding any extra burden on the taxpayers or the treasury.”

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More on the jump, plus a response from the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

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