Senate Health Care Reform Bill to Include the Public Option (Opt Out)

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced today the Senate Health Care Reform bill:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that the merged health care bill will include a public option allowing states to opt-out. Reid: Public Option No 'Silver Bullet' But Strong Consensus For Opt-Out:

"Under this concept states will be able to determine whether the public option works best for them," Reid told reporters. He said it was the "fairest" way to go.

Reid said after "countless hours" of talking to his caucus, there is a "strong consensus" for this plan. He said he will not submit a plan with a triggered public option to the Congressional Budget Office.

"As we've gone through this process, I've concluded, with the support of the White House and Senators. Dodd and Baucus, that the best way to move forward is to include a public option with an opt out provision for states," Reid said.

Reid said he was "disappointed" the public option had "frightened" Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) but that he hoped she would "come back."

I just don't understand all the attention paid to "Queen Olympia" Snowe. It was always a misguided waste of time and energy. Queen Olympia has never been a reliable partner in the past and she cannot be counted upon now. Sen. Reid's refusal to send Queen Olympia's "trigger" option to the CBO for scoring may mark the end of this nonsense.

Queen Olympia has been playing an "inside-outside" game – she was the GOP's inside game in negotiations to undermine the bill as much as she possibly could, and failing that, the GOP's outside game of AHIP and FreedomWorks and Fox News would try to finish the job. There was never any good faith negotiation here. President Obama and Senate leaders should just forget about kissing Queen Olympia's ass, they are never going to get her meaningless vote. Just produce a Democratic-consensus bill and be done with it.

Reid said he is a "strong supporter" of the public option but that is is "not a silver bullet." He said it was a key way to ensure competition among insurers and "to level the playing field."

Today Reid implied that under the current bill, states will have until 2014 to opt out of the government plan.

He also said "there will be a co-op in this bill."

In the next several hours, Reid will send the CBO a draft bill with alternative provisions on certain issues, to get a range of cost estimates on the plan he'll bring to the floor.

Wait, the bill also includes Sen. Kent Conrad's (D-ND) untested and unproven co-op plan that Sen. "Mad Max" Baucus (D-MT) couldn't sell to his own Senate Finance Committee? (Queen Olympia Snowe supported the non-profit cooperatives plan as well. ) Is this lame co-op plan included just to bring along Sens. Conrad and Baucus?

Whatever works. Baucus: I Support Harry Reid And A Public Option Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, who was reportedly none too pleased when he learned that Harry Reid was leaning towards putting a public option in the Senate's health care bill, is now singing a much more positive tune. "It is time to make our system work better for patients and providers, for small business owners and for our economy. It is time for health care reform," Baucus said.

For more than a year, we've been working to meet the goals of reducing the growth of health care costs, improving quality and efficiency and expanding coverage. There are a tremendous number of complicated issues that go into reform and the public option is certainly one of them. I included a public option in the health reform blueprint I released nearly one year ago, and continue to support any provision, including a public option, that will ensure choice and competition and get the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate. Success should be our threshold and I am going to fight hard for the 60 votes we need to meet that goal this year.

The opt-out public option is the compromise plan of Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY). Schumer: Opt-Out Is 'The Best Compromise' That Can Potentially Get 60 Votes The Senator has released the following statement:

"Leader Reid has always been a strong supporter of a public option that could help keep the insurers honest, and today he showed just how deep his commitment is. The public option has new life because as Americans have learned more about it, they have come to see it is the best way to reduce costs and increase competition in the health insurance industry. This form of public option is not exactly what either liberals or moderates would want. But a public plan based on a level playing field, with an opt-out for states, is the best compromise that has the potential of getting 60 votes in the Senate."

The White House has issued a statement as well. Gibbs: Obama Is 'Pleased' Public Option Included:

"The President congratulates Senator Reid and Chairmen Baucus and Dodd for their hard work on health insurance reform. Thanks to their efforts, we're closer than we've ever been to solving this decades-old problem. And while much work remains, the President is pleased that at the progress that Congress has made. He's also pleased that the Senate has decided to include a public option for health coverage, in this case with an allowance for states to opt out. As he said to Congress and the nation in September, he supports the public option because it has the potential to play an essential role in holding insurance companies accountable through choice and competition."

The last "unofficial" whip count in the Senate – which occurred before Sen. Reid's press conference, and before the bill is scored by the CBO, and before the President does any arm-twisting – was in the 57-58 vote range. The problem conservadems are Ben Nelson (D-NE), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR). This assumes that Sens. Conrad and Baucus are on board with the co-op plan also being included in the bill.

These senators are free to vote their conscience and constituencies on the final vote for the bill, but on a procedural vote for cloture to end debate (a filibuster), there should be no doubt that they will vote with their Democratic caucus. It is a matter of party loyalty and discipline. A senator filibusters this bill at ther own peril. Any Democratic senator who filibusters this bill should pay the price with the loss of committee chairmanships and leadership positions, and be cut off from any campaign funds from Democratic Party organizations. Give us an up or down vote.

I believe that there will be no Republican votes. Republicans have made a strategic decision to be the party of no and the status quo. They were never interested in bipartisanship, only in defeating the Health Care Reform bills so they can assert that Obama failed in a cynical game of partisanship. Any more concessions to Republicans will only weaken the bill further. Republicans and their conservadem fellow travelers in the Senate have already done enough to water down the Senate bill. It's time to advance this bill.