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Reform Group Demanded Public Option in Friday Letter To Baucus
Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT)
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Few have commented this Labor Day on Sen. Max Baucus' health care reform bill, which does not include a public option.
But it's fairly clear that the bill won't win the support of reform groups, many of whom see the public option as a necessary element of reform. Asked for comment, the reform campaign Health Care for America Now referred me to letters they sent Friday to Baucus, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and President Obama demanding that the Finance Committee pass a bill with a strong public option.
"Despite literally months of continuous outreach and effort by you in the Senate Finance Committee, the response of the Republican leadership has been to obstruct progress on achieving our shared goals," the letter to Baucus reads.
Across the four other congressional committees that have already acted on comprehensive health care legislation, a consistent outline has emerged.
It is now time the Finance Committee, and then the full Senate, move forward with a bill that contains...a strong public option...national (not a separate plan in every state), publicly operated and accountable, available on day one across the nation, and have the authority to establish payment rates that balance the dual goals of guaranteeing broad accessto providers and ensuring affordability.
Baucus, of course, didn't follow through.
You can read all three letters at this link. They were delivered Friday, amid news reports that the White House might deliver Congress a bill of its own, and that Baucus was finally ready to circulate a draft of his legislation.
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rbeats
September 7, 2009 2:43 PM
Can someone explain to me again why a Senator from a state that has a population the size of a ten mile radius where I live is writing the legislation that will have the most profound effect upon American lives in the last 60 years?
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Cal Gal
September 8, 2009 11:34 AM in reply to rbeats
Seniority.
But once it gets out of his committee, Harry "No Balls" Reid COULD put the public option back in, as it IS in the Senate bills already out of Committee. The question is whether it could get the votes of 51 Senators. And of course whether the Senator from Nevada WANTS the final Senate bill to have a public option.
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3star2nr
September 7, 2009 2:58 PM
Bye bye Max
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capeJoe
September 7, 2009 3:20 PM
Let's face it folks, Congress which is dependent on gobs of lobbyist dollars was never serious about making healthcare affordable. Funneling even more taxpayer money to insurance companies was probably the intent from the beginning.
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Rick Taves
September 7, 2009 4:59 PM
As a Canadian living near Detroit, it pains me to watch what is happening to health care reform in your country. Single payer is not even on the table, and now it seems that a public insurance option is slipping away. When our country introduced single payer public insurance in the sixties with most costs paid by taxes, the insurance industry and the doctors' lobby groups predicted catastrophe. Now not even our right wing politicians would tamper with the fundamental principles of our system. It is time the USA joined the rest of civilization and treated health care as a right, not another commodity to be bought and sold on Wall Street.
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bmull
September 7, 2009 6:22 PM
Word now is that any bill Congress passes won't decrease medical bankruptcy, won't improve access to care, and won't slow the rise in health costs. On the other hand they'll garnish your taxes if you don't pony up to these insurance monopolies.
When is someone going to come out and say it: This health care plan shouldn't have passed the laugh test, let alone a Congressional committee. It's a testament to what unlimited lobbyist money can accomplish, but when it comes under serious public scrutiny it's dead.
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go2goal
September 8, 2009 11:31 AM
Did Obama himself make this a steeper hill to climb?
The Repubs have everyone stirred up over the selling deficit - and with pretty good reason. I absolutely support Universal Health Care.....but Obama didn't make it possible.
He should have and must still address areas that are hurting the budget and almost defeating health care reform before it even gets off the ground:
1) Bring the troops and stop the killing and stop the wasted billions and billions of dollars
2) Rescind the Bush tax cuts for the rich
3) Stop using all of our money to bail out the greedy bankers - it's time to fire Geithner and appoint a Treasury Secretary that is NOT part of the NYC Baker country club Larry Summers and Volcker also have to go......
4) Cut military spending by at least 20%
5) Collect the taxes and all the fines and penalties that corporations owe. They don't pay up and it's time we collect.
6) Stop government outsourcing to expensive isider private companies. This alone will reduce the budget by 20%.
Take the above steps and you'll have a balanced budget and we'll be able to negate the Repubs argument of it being a budget breaker. It's all those standing Bush programs that are breaking the budget.
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