Senate Finance Committee Rejects First Public Option Amendment

The Senate Finance Committee voted down a government-run "public option" as part an overhaul of the nation's health-care system Tuesday, rejecting the first of two amendments offered by Democrats.

The panel's chairman, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), and four other Democrats sided with Republicans in opposing a public-option amendment offered by Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.). Baucus said he voted against the politically volatile provision because he feared that a bill including it would not get the 60 votes it would need to pass on the Senate floor. The committee voted 15 to 8 to reject the amendment.

After the vote, the panel began debating a second public-option amendment introduced by Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.).

"We are going to get at this, and at this, and at this, until we succeed, because we believe in it so strongly," Schumer said in offering his amendment. He disputed Baucus's contention that a health-care reform bill including the public option could never pass the Senate, saying the more Americans hear about its benefits, "the more they like it."

Rockefeller and Schumer said a public option would be the best way to give consumers an affordable choice in health insurance and rein in what they described as voracious, profit-driven private insurance companies.

Republicans charged that both plans would lead to complete government control of the health-care system and ultimately force private insurers out of business. Some Democrats also took issue with aspects of the public option plans, particularly Rockefeller's proposal to tie medical providers' reimbursement rates to Medicare for two years.

The debate came as the committee worked for a fifth day on an overall health-care reform bill authored by Baucus. His bill, which he says would cost nearly $900 billion over 10 years, contains no public option, favoring instead a system in which nonprofit cooperatives would offer health insurance to people who could not afford private companies' plans.

Other Democrats who favor a public option argued that polls show 65 percent of Americans support including it in health-insurance reform legislation. House committees have included such an option in their proposals, and President Obama has expressed support for a public option, while also indicating that this is not the most important consideration for him and leaving the way open for cooperatives.

Rockefeller said his proposal would save about $50 billion over 10 years. He denied that it represents "some kind of government takeover," insisting that enrollment in a public plan would be strictly optional.

Charging that private insurance companies have "failed to meet their obligations" to the public, Rockefeller said the firms are "determined to protect their profits and put their customers second." A public option, he said, would act as a "counterweight" to "rapacious" health-insurance companies, helping to reduce excessive growth in the cost of premiums.

The West Virginia Democrat also took aim at what he called "junk insurance" products -- limited-benefit policies that he said make up one of the fastest-growing sectors of the insurance industry but that provide no real coverage when a consumer gets sick because they are so riddled with loopholes and exceptions.

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