Reid says he’s moving forward with a Senate bill that has a public option with an opt-out in it "with the support of the White House, and Senators Dodd and Baucus." He says that the Senate bill will also have co-ops included - which confuses me a bit. My hope is that he is not considering the co-ops a public option. And of course, just who will be allowed to participate in the Public Option is still fuzzy. So while we don't know just what the Public Option will look like, the best news is that we don't have the "trigger" deeply disappointing Olympia Snowe.
From the Los Angeles Times:
Fueling the push for a new government insurance plan, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said today that his chamber's healthcare bill would include a compromise that would create a nationwide public option but give states the right to opt out.
"The public option is not a silver bullet, [but] I believe it's an important way to ensure competition and to level the playing field for patients with the insurance industry," Reid said. "Under this concept, states will be able to decide what works for them."
Reid sent the proposal to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to be analyzed today, a key step before he can bring a bill to the floor for debate.
His decision does not settle the debate roiling Democratic ranks over how to create a government plan that would give consumers who don't get coverage through their employers an alternative to plans offered by commercial insurers.
The "opt-out" compromise is still two votes shy of the 60 Reid needs to overcome a Republican filibuster, according to a senior Democratic aide on Capitol Hill who requested anonymity when discussing the plan.
Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D- San Francisco) are advancing separate healthcare bills in the Senate and House, which would have to be reconciled later this year before they are sent to the White House for President Obama's signature.
But Pelosi indicated Friday that the opt-out alternative could be included in a reconciled bill.
For now, House Democrats are poised to pass a bill that would create a nationwide government plan, although there is still disagreement about how much such a plan should pay doctors, hospitals and other medical providers.
Liberals, including Pelosi, favor a proposal that would link those payments to the existing Medicare program, which often pays providers less than commercial insurers. Proponents believe such an arrangement would save money and help drive down costs.
But many conservative Democrats, particularly from rural areas where Medicare typically pays less, want the government plan to negotiate its rates with providers, as commercial insurers do.
Pelosi hopes to settle those differences in time to unveil a bill later this week, according to her office.
Despite several indications that the White House will ultimately not go to bat for a public option, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) says he's seen no signs that the White House will change course--but if they do, he's not budging.
"I know that the White House is debating it internally," Brown said in an interview with TPMDC. "But Congress is writing the bill, the President's not."
"The White House should not take progressives for granted," an animated Brown told me. "It's not just the conservatives he needs to be in the fold. It's the progressives who've been in the vineyards fighting for reform for years."
As co-author of the public option provision in the Senate HELP Committee's health care bill, Brown is one of the Senate's strongest advocates of the public option. But he still leaves open the possibility that he'd vote for a bill without a public option in it.
"[I]'m not going to say I will not support it if it doesn't have [a public option]," Brown said. "It's not the only thing that matters in this bill. Guaranteed issue is a very important.... insurance reform is very important."
"The most important thing is the public option," Brown said. "I don't know for sure if I would support it with out a public option but it would be hard to get there.... We're not going through this to write some namby pamby bill so we can check a box and say we did health care reform." Read it all at TPMDC
From Press Release:
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), today joined Sen. John D. Rockefeller (D-WV) to introduce the Consumers Health Care Act. The legislation would establish a public health insurance plan that provides an affordable and accountable health insurance option for consumers.
“Congress must include a real public plan option if we want to see truly transformative health care reform this year,” said Rockefeller. “I created the Consumers Health Care Act so we can give the American people the complete coverage they need at an affordable rate. As we move forward with health care reform in the Senate Finance Committee and beyond, I will continue to fight for a public plan option. It is time to end our days of private health insurance charging too much for too little, at the expense of the American people.”
“A strong public health insurance option will help reduce health care costs and improve the quality of health insurance plans,” said Brown, who authored a resolution cosponsored by 28 senators calling for a public health insurance option to be included in health reform. “A public health insurance option will keep insurance companies honest and set a gold standard for medical care. I’m proud to work with Sen. Rockefeller on this legislation which will protect consumer choice, improve patient care, and lower health costs.”
President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and many consumer-advocate and health care organizations have come out in support of a public plan option in health reform. Over 60 percent of Americans also want to see a public plan option on the table (source: Kaiser Family Foundation, June, 2009).
The Consumers Health Care Act has been endorsed by many groups including Health Care for American Now (HCAN), the Children’s Defense Fund, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Overview of the Consumers Health Care Act
- Offer a “Consumer Choice Health Plan” as an option alongside private insurance. By bringing a competitive public plan option to the table, private insurance companies will be driven to provide Americans with better value for their health care at a better price, in contrast to the current private insurance framework, which is focused on avoiding risk and increasing their profits.
- Establish America’s Health Insurance Trust as a “good housekeeping seal of approval” to give consumers a voice in health insurance oversight. This nonprofit, consumer-driven organization will evaluate and give ratings to all health insurance products offered through the national health insurance exchange – based on factors such as affordability, adequacy, transparency, consumer satisfaction, provider satisfaction, and quality.
The Consumers Health Care Health Care Act can be found by clicking here. [PDF]
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