Debate on Public Health Insurance Plan Poised to Explode in Senate

[supernova]

The debate over whether to create a public insurance plan to compete with private plans is about to explode in the Senate Finance Committee. The stakes are high and so is the suspense.

It's unclear what the outcome will be Tuesday when the committee, continuing work on its 10-year, $900 billion health reform bill, is scheduled to take up three versions of a public health insurance option.

The panel has 13 Democrats and 10 Republicans. Anything less than a solid wall of Republican opposition to all three proposals would be shocking. On top of that, several Democrats have reservations about some or all of the proposals.

By my count, there are nine Democrats in favor of or open to at least one of the three public options. Two favor Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe's proposal for state-level public options to be "triggered" if competition in a state falls short. Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas is a mystery. If she ultimately supports some type of public option, that would make committee chairman Max Baucus the deciding vote. He says he supports a public option but that it couldn't win on the floor.

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/09/28/debate-on-public-health-insurance-plan-poised-to-explode-in-sena/

[Enthusiast]

1. Yeah.

They want to characterize the public option as some wild eyed far left idea. And we all know nothing is further from the truth. So our representatives are the new truthers and we know it. And I will actively work to elect the opposition of any Democrat that votes against the public option.