Free Republic

Greg Sargent reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said that he would support holding a reconciliation vote on a public option. Said Reid spokesman Rodell Mollineau in a written statement (emphasis Sargent's): Senator Reid has always and continues to support the public option as a way to drive down costs and create competition. That is why he included the measure in his original health care proposal. If a decision is made to use reconciliation to advance health care, Senator Reid will work with the White House, the House, and members of his caucus in an effort to craft...

Schumer Joins New Push for Public OptionStory By Reid Pillifant February 18, 2010 | 3:47 p.m Senator Chuck Schumer just announced that he'll sign a new letter pushing majority leader Harry Reid to allow a vote on the public option. "I just added my name to [the] effort to pass a public option through the reconciliation process, and I wanted you to be the first to know," Mr. Schumer wrote in an email to supporters. He's the first of the Democratic leadership in the Senate to do so. He credited four senators--Michael Bennet, Sherrod Brown, Jeff Merkley, and fellow New...

What’s not to like about the idea of expanding an entitlement program that is already speeding towards collapse, mainly because too many people are entering it already? As it turns out, plenty — and even the New York Times has noticed. It has higher premiums, none of the out-of-pocket caps that private policies have, and will attract a pool with much higher risk, driving costs of premiums and services up, according to a former Medicare trustee: Marilyn Moon, a health economist and former public trustee of Medicare, said that for people 55 to 64, Medicare premiums could be higher than...

It may not satisfy liberals seeking a 'public option,' but the proposal to include Americans as young as 55 in the federal program seems to have increased support for the Senate bill. Reporting from Washington and Chicago - The new proposal for breaking the healthcare impasse in the Senate -- based on a large expansion of the Medicare program -- raised hopes Wednesday among Democrats that the way may be clearing to pass their massive bill by Christmas. The deal, which emerged late Tuesday night after days of negotiations among a group of 10 Democratic senators, dropped the idea of...

Unless I misunderstand, the socialized medicine plan from hell would not only bilk other patients to provide elective abortions for those who want them, but require all enrollees – even those who view those abortions as murder – to finance them! Sure, this may be in the Constitution, but … on what planet?

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, speaking in that trademark sonorous baritone, utters a simple statement that translates into real trouble for Democratic leaders: "I'm going to be stubborn on this." Stubborn, he means, in opposing any health-care overhaul that includes a "public option," or government-run health-insurance plan, as the current bill does. His opposition is strong enough that Mr. Lieberman says he won't vote to let a bill come to a final vote if a public option is included. Probe for a catch or caveat in that opposition, and none is visible. Can he support a public option if states could opt...

Max Baucus: Public option still part of health care reform debate… It’s just less ‘pure’October 19, 2009 by Mary Vanac WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus told reporters Monday afternoon that he isn’t sure the Senate can muster the votes needed to pass health care reform that contains a “pure public option.” “This issue is alive” Baucus told reporters during a teleconference organized by Families USA, a consumer health care advocate. “We’re looking at it to see what makes the most sense,” the Democrat from Montana said in answer to a question about whether a government-backed health...

Senate Finance Committee members have been notified that the committee's health reform bill was filed today. S. 1796 weighs in at 1,502 pages, according to a Senate Republican leadership source. It's still not up yet on the Finance Committee website or Thomas.gov. We'll post a link as soon as we get one.

White House discreetly labors to weave coalition on health care WASHINGTON - Despite months of seeming ambivalence about creating a government health insurance plan, the Obama White House has launched an intensifying behind-the-scenes campaign to get divided Senate Democrats to take up some version of the idea in the weeks just ahead. President Barack Obama has long advocated a so-called public option, while at the same time repeatedly expressing openness to other ways to offer consumers a potentially more affordable alternative to health plans sold by private insurers. But now, senior administration officials are holding private meetings almost daily...

Committee chairman Max Baucus, D-Montana, said that while he liked the idea of a public option, he knew a bill that included the provision would be a death sentence for health care reform. But Democratic Sens. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Charles Schumer of New York, who sponsored the public option amendments, both indicated that they don't think the debate about the public option is over. Despite his proposal being voted down, Schumer said Tuesday, "Today the odds went up that there'll be a public option in the bill." There's been a lot of focus on the plan in...

Updated at 4:05 p.m. ET with vote on Schumer amendment. A key Senate panel shot down two amendments on Tuesday afternoon to add a government-run health insurance plan to its health care bill. Getting to the crux of the nation's current health care debate – whether there should be more government involvement in health care -- the Senate Finance Committee spent hours debating the merits of a government plan, or "public option," before voting down two separate proposals.

Senate Committee Votes Against Government-Run Public Option Insurance Plan

Some(1) have tried to ease concerns about President Obama's plan to reform health-care by stating that at this point there isn’t exactly a specific bill to be for or against. Well, as an avid reader of New York Post headlines and Sarah Palin’s Tweets I can assure you that Ralph Wigglesworth has already heard all he needs to know. To be frank, what it is I'm hearing is that even after last week's hugely successful public Tea-bagging of Washington much of the public (this is the same selfish public that's for a public-option...what a coincidence!!) finds the arguments of the...

On a Thursday night Republican Governors Association conference call with conservative activists, moderated by Erick Erickson of RedState, Gov. Tim Pawlenty broached the possibility of “asserting the 10th Amendment” to keep Minnesota from fully participating in a health care plan passed by Congress and signed by President Obama. The 10th Amendment reads:

Breaking News Sen. Finance Chairman Baucus Concedes 'Public Option' Can't Pass the Senate

The only way a "public plan" can achieve its stated goals is to pay doctors and hospitals less than what private health plans pay for the same services. Doctors and hospitals in Alaska already lose money on Medicare, and make up for their losses on current government programs by charging everyone with private health care coverage more for the same services. Current proposals for a "public plan" would place unsustainable financial pressure on doctors and hospitals. Some of the proposals suggest paying providers rates close to that which Medicare currently uses to underpay health care providers. Others suggest "negotiated" payments,...

"Why can't they make Medicare the public option? Allow anyone to be part of Medicare. . . . Seems reasonable unless I'm missing something." Quoting comment #19 on Democratic Underground website thread titled "White House appears ready to drop 'public option'"

'Public option' in health plan may be droppedSHERYL GAY STOLBERG Last Modified: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 5:17 a.m. PHOENIX — The White House, facing increasing skepticism over President Obama’s call for a public insurance plan to compete with the private sector, signaled Sunday that it was willing to compromise and would consider a proposal for a nonprofit health cooperative being developed in the Senate. The “public option,” a new government insurance program akin to Medicare, has been a central component of Mr. Obama’s agenda for overhauling the health care system, but it has also emerged as a flashpoint for...

News fairly unbalanced. We report. You decipher. With multimillion-dollar jury awards in medical malpractice suits driving up the cost of liability insurance for physicians -- and thus the cost of health care to consumers -- President Barack Obama today backed a health care malpractice reform plan that would create a "public option" law firm to sue doctors for "reasonable" damages. "We need to keep these ambulance-chasers honest," Obama said. "These sharks are becoming obscenely wealthy by tugging the heartstrings of compassionate jurors, who then grant ridiculous damage awards for pain and suffering, which makes malpractice insurance rates skyrocket and jacks...

Some of us may have seen James Carville say that Public Option is out. This is just a Democratic strategy that is again a partial truth only to shut us up while they work on getting it through. This fight is far from over. Democratic strategist Howard Dean laid out the Democratic plans this morning on MSNBC to ultimately put in Public Option such that they will have it in the House bill, but not the Senate bill. When they reconcile the two bills for Obama's desk, it will only need 50 votes in the Senate, and they can "forget...