Is the public option portion of the health care bill dead? This is the discussion in the wake of the public option amendment votes in Tuesday's Senate Finance Committee meeting. Jay Rockefeller's amendment would have created a pure public option that was essentially an extension of Medicare. That amendment was defeated soundly 8-15. Charles Schumer's amendment followed. Some characterized it as a watered down version of Rockefeller's. Its reimbursement rates would not be tied to Medicare but would be independently negotiated and doctors and hospitals could opt in. Schumer's amendment was defeated as well, 10-13. However, don't be fooled by what appeared to be the demise of the public option. Senate progressives are confident that they can get a bill that contains a public option onto the president's desk.
Senate public option advocates believe the Senate Finance Committee is a more conservative body than the Senate itself, so Tuesday's vote may have been merely an experiment to determine which option stood a better chance of actually passing the Senate as a whole. Since Schumer's amendment was defeated by only three Democratic votes, public option advocates are now convinced they can pass a health care reform bill with the public option on the Senate floor. As Senator Tom Harkin explained on MSNBC, Senate Democrats may not be able to marshal the 60 votes some believe they need, but they can certainly get 51, which will allow them to use the reconciliation process, a maneuver normally used to pass contentious budget bills quickly. Reconciliation is controversial, but Schumer and company feel momentum is now behind them, so be assured they will implement a full court press to get a public option on the floor of the Senate.
If Senator Schumer can convince President Obama that the public option can win in the Senate with a 51 vote reconciliation victory, the president will most likely reinsert himself into the congressional process. If Schumer and company obtain 51 votes and employ the reconciliation gambit, then Obama may try to twist as many arms as he can to convince even more Democratic Senators to go along so as to present a more united front. President Obama wants a transformational and historic health care bill that he can sign amid much pomp and circumstance, so if Obama's ultimate goal is to put a public option in place, he may pull out all the stops to make it happen.
However, if the Senate progressives can not manage to create a health care bill with a public option that can pass the Senate, there is still another option available to them. If the House passes its bill with a public option, which is looking more and more likely, but the Senate can not, then public option advocates will take the bill that will pass and make a big push through the House-Senate negotiations that will take place in the conference committee to insert it. This may be an uphill climb, but it is well within the realm of possibility. Rep. Jan Schakowski (D-IL), one of the most vocal single payer proponents in the House, was confident that the public option would happen when she spoke to reporters in a briefing on September 25th. She insisted that "at the end of the day, there will be a public option in the bill," because it would be added in during the conference negotiations.
Both of these roadmaps to government sponsored healthcare have great political risks. According to a recent Rasmussen Reports poll out on Monday, support for the president's and his health care reform allies' proposals are at at their lowest ever with only 41 percent supporting them and 56 percent against them. The fallout, should a public run health care system be forced on the American people against their will, could be swift and painful, especially if this occurred during the 2010 mid term campaigns. Nonetheless, Senator Harkin, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee, is confident that a bill with a public option will be on the president's desk by Christmas, just in time for those members of Congress who voted for it to go home and get pelted with lumps of coal by their angry constituents.
Kim Priestap's Bio
Kim Priestap is a business owner, freelance writer, and contributing editor at Wizbangblog.com. Kim has been published in the Washington Examiner and Pajamas Media. She lives in northern Michigan with her husband, Steve, their three kids, and two dogs.
Posted
10-01-2009 12:01 AM
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