Baucus: The Public Option Is “Alive”
October 19th, 2009
by
Chris Fleming
|
The public option is “alive,” Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) said in a media conference call sponsored by Families USA.
The Senate Finance health reform bill is the only one that does not include a publicly run health insurance plan among the options that would be offered to consumers purchasing coverage in a new health insurance exchange. Baucus and other Senators are currently working to merge the Finance bill with legislation approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, which does have a public option. Health reform legislation approved by three committees in the House of Representatives also includes a public option.
“There are various versions of the public option being bandied about: the pure public option, then there’s Medicare light, even playing field … opt in, opt out. The long and the short of it is that this issue is alive — we’re looking at it,” Baucus said. The Montana Democrat has previously said that there were not 60 Senate votes for a public option, but he softened that position somewhat on the call: “I just don’t know if there are 60 votes for the more pure kinds of public option; there may be more for the less pure kinds, but that’s up to the Senate.”
Over the weekend, the White House reiterated that President Obama supports a public option but does not view its presence as a prerequisite for supporting a health reform bill. On another conference call last Friday, HELP Commitee chair Tom Harkin said that a strong majority of Senate Democrats support a public option and predicted that a public option would be included in final Senate legislation.
The health insurance industry strongly opposes a public option, but Baucus suggested that the industry did not help its cause in Congress when it launched a recent attack against the Finance Committee legislation. A report released by the American Association of Health Insurance Plans “was so flawed that it galvanized and solidified alot of feelings in the Senate against the insurance industry.”
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