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By Dan Eggen
Two progressive groups continue their attacks on centrist Democrats today with an advertising campaign targeting Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), whose role in attempting to forge a compromise health-care bill with Republicans has raised the ire of many liberals.
The ad from the Progressive Campaign Change Committee and Democracy for America comes as Baucus's Senate Finance Committee prepares to vote on a bill that likely will not contain a so-called public insurance option, which many liberals consider crucial to reform but which is strongly opposed by Republicans and private insurers.
The ad will be run in Montana and Washington, D.C., and features a young, uninsured father who faces more than $100,000 in medical bills because of a congenital heart defect.
"Senator Baucus, when you take millions of dollars from health and insurance interests that oppose reform and oppose giving families like mine the choice of a public option, I have to ask: whose side are you on?" asks Bing Perrine of Billings, Mont.
moreCNN:
Baucus targeted by liberal groups in new adFull Script after the jump:
BING: My name is Bing Perrine and I live here in Billings, Montana, with my beautiful wife and baby boy. Last June, I collapsed because of congenital heart problems. I need open-heart surgery, but I have no insurance and no company will insure me.
My friends and family have been a blessing. With hearts as big as a Montana sky, they have helped with bake sales and benefits. But my wife and I still owe over $100,000 in medical bills.
None of this debt would have piled up if I had the option of buying into a public health insurance plan.
Private insurance companies need competition. They profit by denying care to people like me.
Senator Baucus, when you take millions of dollars from health and insurance interests that oppose reform — and oppose giving families like mine the choice of a public option — I have to ask: whose side are you on?