30 Senate Dems Demand Public Option In Health Reform Legislation

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 12 Oct 2009 - 1:00 PDT

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Thirty Senate Democrats on Thursday asked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to include a government-administered public health insurance plan option in the final health reform bill that he delivers to the chamber floor, Roll Call reports. Whether to include a public option will be among "several crucial decisions" Reid and the White House will face next week as they attempt to merge the Senate Finance Committee's reform bill with the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee's bill (Drucker, Roll Call, 10/8). The Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to vote Tuesday on its bill, which does not include a public option. The HELP measure, as well as the House health reform bills, do include a public option (Young, The Hill, 10/8).

The letter was signed by several vocal proponents of the public option, including Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.). Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) circulated the letter (Roll Call, 10/8).

The letter said, "The Senate Finance Committee included a cooperative approach to insurance market competition. While promoting more co-ops may be a worthy goal, it is not realistic to expect local co-ops to spring up in every corner of this country" (Frates, "Live Pulse," Politico, 10/8). It continued, "We have spent the better part of this year fighting for health reform that would provide insurance access and continuity to every American in a fiscally responsible manner," adding, "We are concerned that -- absent a competitive and continuous public insurance option -- health reform legislation will not produce nationwide access and ongoing cost containment." The senators wrote, "For that reason, we are asking for your leadership on ensuring that the merged health reform bill contains a public insurance option" (Roll Call, 10/8).

Meanwhile, Senate HELP Committee Chair Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) is expressing confidence that final reform legislation will include a public option, The Hill reports. "It's one thing to vote on a bill specifically dealing with something and then another thing to vote on a comprehensive bill that might include" a public option, Harkin said during an interview on C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" that is scheduled to air on Sunday (The Hill, 10/8).

He said that public opinion polls show that there is strong support for the public option, adding that it should fall on opponents to remove the public plan through amendments on the Senate floor (Herszenhorn, "Prescriptions," New York Times, 10/8). "The bill should go forward and then when we get on the floor and there are amendments offered to change the public option or to modify it or to do away with it, well then [the public option's supporters are] going to have to vote as they see fit," Harkin said. He also noted that three House committees and the HELP Committee have supported bills with a public option (The Hill, 10/8).

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