House Close To Decision On Public Option In Health Reform, Could Release Bill This Week

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Also Included In: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 29 Oct 2009 - 5:00 PDT

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Intent on voting on its final health care overhaul legislation next week, the House might make a decision in the next "24 to 48 hours" about what type of public option the bill (HR 3200) will include, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), an assistant to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said Tuesday, Roll Call reports. The main issue Democratic leaders are negotiating is how the public option would set physician reimbursement rates (Newmyer, Roll Call, 10/27).

"[W]e want to consider this bill next week, and we pledged to give 72 hours' notice, so we need to roll out the bill this week," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said, referring to pledges that the bill would be posted online for 72 hours before it comes up for a floor vote (Allen, The Hill, 10/27).

Some House Democrats have expressed reservations about supporting a public option in their bill only to see it rejected by the Senate, where support for the option is less firm. According to House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) announcement Monday that the Senate bill would feature a version of a public option provides political cover to Democrats wary of supporting a public option that could be rejected by the Senate (Epstein, CQ Today, 10/27). Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) said that Reid's decision to include a public option "was worth 15 votes" for a public option in the House (Epstein [2], CQ Today, 10/27). According to The Hill, "Democrats of all stripes" agree that the Senate's actions will help House Democrats get 218 votes for some form of a public option (Allen/Soraghan, The Hill, 10/27).

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