Unlike many of his fellow Blue Dogs, he's not against including a public insurance option. He said he would favor one that creates an "equal playing field" and legitimate competition with private insurance companies.
"I don't follow the fear that having a public option means the beginning of a single-payer system," he said, sitting in a windowless conference room at his Salisbury district office. The office was the scene of a sidewalk protest in late July where a life-size photo of Kratovil's head, perched atop blue shirt and khakis, was strung up on a wooden gallows by a local man.
Kratovil insisted that he isn't feeling whipsawed by opposing sides in the health care debate. He also said that he doesn't believe everything he's been told, including by those in the medical industry, but wants to weigh their perspectives against other information he gets.
"Usually the truth is somewhere in the middle," he said, drawing a comparison to his previous career as Queen Anne's state's attorney.
Opposition to the House Democratic plan from the Blue Dogs, many of whom represent districts that are either marginally Democratic or, like Kratovil's, vote Republican for president, has already succeeded in slowing action in Congress. As part of a deal with the conservative faction, the measure was made slightly less generous to those with low or moderate incomes and more favorable to a group of small-business owners who would escape a requirement to give their employees health insurance or pay a penalty to the federal government.
As the legislative struggle has dragged out, public opposition to sweeping change is growing. Skepticism is increasing, in particular, from the independent voters Kratovil will need in order to win re-election, national polling shows.
At the same time, though, news coverage of the fight in Congress has raised public awareness of the Blue Dogs - to Kratovil's apparent benefit. The only Marylander in the group's 15-year history wields the Blue Dog label like a shield, using it as a fiscal conservative seal of approval.
Phil Roath, 65, a conservative Republican from Cambridge, said the label "makes a huge difference," because it means that Kratovil's "philosophy is more in line with my philosophy." When Kratovil visited the Salisbury car dealership where Roath is sales manager, the decorated U.S. Marine Corps veteran informed him that he didn't vote for him last year but would in 2010.
