Schumer, Democrats Oath to Fight For Public Option After Setback
The panel rejected amendments offered by Schumer and West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller to create a “public option” that would compete with private insurers such as Indianapolis- based WellPoint Inc. Panel chairman Max Baucus and two other Democrats joined with all of the committees Republicans to vote against both amendments.
While Baucus said he was voting against the program because it couldnt pass the Senate “at this point,” Schumer said he sees growing support. The public option has been the biggest point of contention in the debate over revamping the nations health system, with many Democrats arguing it would curb costs and Republicans saying it would hinder competition.
“Im more optimistic than I was six hours ago,” Schumer, the No. 3 Senate Democratic leader, told reporters after his amendment was defeated. “Every day, I get more optimistic that we can get this passed.”
The idea already has widespread support in the House, where its included in legislation passed by three committees. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she cant get a measure through without a public option, and a showdown between the two chambers looms if the Senate ends up dropping it altogether.
“The public option is on the march,” Rockefeller told other members of the Senate finance panel yesterday.
Paring Losses
Health insurance stocks pared losses after the votes. The Standard & Poors index of the six largest managed-care companies fell 1.2 percent yesterday, after dropping as much as 3.5 percent earlier in the day. Coventry Health Care Inc. of Bethesda, Maryland, rose 12 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $19.94.
Later in the evening, the Senate panel unanimously adopted an amendment by Iowa Senator Charles Grassley and Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning, both Republicans, to require lawmakers, their aides and all other federal employees to buy their insurance from health insurance exchanges created by the legislation after 2013.
The next major battle for insurers is over taxes to pay for the plans estimated $900 billion cost over 10 years. Baucuss proposal, the framework for the finance panels debate, includes a tax on high-end, or “Cadillac,” health-benefits plans. The insurance industry opposes new taxes as well as the public option, saying they would disrupt coverage.
Baucuss committee will begin a sixth day of debate today, missing the chairmans original target of three days. The group has been working late into the evenings and is holding the longest “mark-up” of a measure in 15 years, Baucus said.
Interesting Week
The three House committees and the Senate health panel finished their work in July on legislation designed to rein in health-care costs and cover tens of millions of uninsured Americans. Baucus spent two extra months trying to court Republican votes for his plan, so far unsuccessfully.
As part of that effort, he ditched the idea of a public option in favor of nonprofit, member-run insurance cooperatives that would get government seed money. Under his proposal, insurers would also have to issue policies to all who need them and face restrictions on the premiums they can charge the youngest and oldest policy holders.
“My job is to put together a bill that will become law,” Baucus said before the vote on Rockefellers amendment. “I fear if this provision is in this bill as it comes out of this committee, it will jeopardize” the overhaul effort, he said.
Focus on Families
Rockefeller said his amendment, which was defeated 15-8, would probably save $50 billion over 10 years and reduce costs for families, not focus on profits for insurers.
“Why would we not do this?” he said. “People come second and the profits come first if were against this.”
The Rockefeller amendment would have initially pegged the rates that the public option paid health-care providers to the lower levels paid by Medicare, the government program for the elderly. Schumers proposal would have required the program to negotiate rates with providers, as private insurers do.