After Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), lobbied throughout the past week to get his amendment calling for a single-payer health care system modeled after Medicare back on the table, the House rejected Kucinich's attempts to reinsert the amendment in the bill.

That's after a committee stripped the amendment from the House health care bill without giving him any advanced explanation.

In a letter to supporters on Wednesday, Kucinich wrote, "Thank you for all of your efforts on behalf of the Kucinich Amendment for a state single-payer option, which would protect the right of states to pursue a single payer health care system."

"Unfortunately, the House Leadership has rejected the many appeals on behalf of the amendment and will not reverse their decision, which removed the amendment from the bill. Therefore, the Kucinich Amendment for a state single payer option will not be included in the Manager's Amendment and is not in the bill which will come before the House soon."

A "manager's amendment" is a package of numerous individual amendments agreed to by both sides in advance. The managers are the majority and the minority members who manage the debate on a bill for their side. Kucinich said his amendment "represents the most powerful challenge to the insurance companies' control of our health care system. Even the possibility of a state single payer system will make the insurance companies think twice before they raise premiums. The higher the insurance premiums, the more vulnerable companies are to citizens' efforts to create alternatives such as a single payer system. We should never be locked into higher and higher premiums!"

The congressman also said he doesn't accept the decision to remove the amendment from the bill, and he said that there would be one more chance for the American people to push for a single-payer system.

"Once the health care bill passes the House, and the Senate passes its version, the two bills will go to a Conference Committee," Kucinich said. "It is at this point that we will have one more chance. We need to insist that the Kucinich Amendment be included in the Conference Committee report, since that is what will ultimately become law."

Kucinich has argued that a single-payer system would help provide health care for everyone and would help states that are facing budget difficulties. He and six other representatives signed a letter sent last week to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) calling to restore the Kucinich Amendment to the House health care reform bill before the bill is voted on. The amendment calls for a provision that would allow states to choose a single-payer health care system. This would mean that health care would be run by state governments rather than the federal government.

Even though the Democrats control the majority of the House and Senate, disagreement about whether to have a single-payer system could mean discord among Democrats, and therefore put the health care bills at risk of not passing.

Kucinich on Tuesday said on the floor of the House of Representatives, "Even though insurance companies make money not providing health care, the so-called reform bill gives so much power and money to the insurance companies that we are giving far too much for the few benefits which the bill may confer"

Also, he said, "As long as there are for-profit health insurance companies, there will be no effective way to protect consumers against ever escalating premiums, co pays and deductibles, unless the insurance companies know that people at a state level will always have a choice to reject the insurance companies and establish a single-payer not-for-profit system."

"That is why the Kucinich Amendment must be put back in the health care bill, not just to protect the rights of states to pursue single payer, but to protect the rights of consumers to be free of the economic death grip of the insurance companies."

In a letter to Pelosi last Friday, Kucinich wrote, "Leadership has chosen to strip the Kucinich amendment of the protection it deserves" and "a simple vote on the floor would be a setback for the amendment and for single payer health care, because it would be exposed to the full brunt of the insurance industry's attacks."

"Progressives are firm and emphatic in their support for the single payer health care. A single payer, Medicare for All health system is the best way to control costs, drive up quality and extend care to all. Allowing states to opt for a single payer plan is a compromise. It is an incremental reform. But it allows the country to move incrementally in the direction that is needed."

Other representatives who signed the letter to Pelosi are John Conyers, Jr. (D-Michigan), Eric Massa (D-New York), Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), Jan Schakowsky (D-Illinois), Lynn Woolsey (D-California) and Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona). Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland), Rep. Charles Rangel (D-New York), Rep. Henry Waxman (D-California) and Rep. John Dingell (D-Michigan) are part of the committee that removed the Kucinich amendment from the House health care bill. According to a story the Huffington Post, Pelosi said that she has been a single-payer supporter for 30 years but that she wasn't sure if she would allow the Kucinich amendment to come up for a vote.

Attempts to seek comment from spokespeople for Pelosi, Waxman and Dingell were unsuccessful on Tuesday and Wednesday.

As talk about health care reform continues, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) announced last week that a public option plan with an opt-out provision would be in a health care bill that he is sending to the Senate floor to be debated next month. The plan, which Reid has said would encourage competition, would allow people to buy government-run insurance, and the provision would let individual states opt out of the plan.

President Barack Obama, through his press secretary, supported Reid's public option plan and opt-out provision, stating that the public option has the potential to hold insurance companies accountable through choice and competition.

The opt-out provision doesn't call for unconditional approval of a public plan, but comes closer to doing that than some other ideas do. The public option and opt-out provision would let states decide whether to offer some of their residents the chance to buy into a government-run health insurance alternative. The public plan would receive startup money from the government but would be paid back over time; the government would negotiate rates that participants pay. Details of the opt-out provision are still being worked out, said Regan Lachapelle, deputy communications director for Sen. Reid.

Some critics oppose the opt-out provision because they say it gives government too much power in health care. Opponents include Republican Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman and Republican Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi.

"I oppose a government-run plan," Sen. Grassley wrote in a recent column in The Des Moines Register. "It would drive private insurers out of business and lead to a government takeover of the health care system. From rationing care to infringing on the doctor-patient relationship, a government-run system also would guarantee US taxpayers a staggering tax burden for generations to come."

Sen. Grassley also wrote, "Sweeping health care reform should be passed with broad-based bipartisan support. Congress should focus on areas of common ground, including initiatives to increase quality and decrease costs."

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana) is "very skeptical" of the government option but would favor a plan that drives down costs. And Lieberman said that even though he doesn't favor the public option, he believes it's important to start the health care debate.

Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office contends that a public option could save much money, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the public option would drive down government health care costs.

Also, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who represents the 18th congressional district in Houston, said, "Surveys show that nearly three out of four voters want a public health insurance plan." She also said that 73 percent of doctors and 1,000 state legislators favor health reform legislation with a public option. The American people want a strong public option heard in Congress, Lee said, because their voices "have been drowned out by insurance company propaganda and disruptive tea-baggers at health reform town hall meetings." The Senate likely will vote on making many revisions on the health care bill in the weeks to come.