The Senate finally revealed its healthcare plan yesterday afternoon and after weeks of speculation as to its final contents, there was really no big surprise.  As was predicted here yesterday morning, there is of course a public option, but there is an “opt out” provision for states that wish to not be included in the government plan.  They would have until 2014 to decide to not be part of the proposed government “insurance” program.

The announcement predictably received mixed reviews and will undoubtedly receive many more in the days to come.  In a press conference yesterday, Reid said, “I think its the fairest way to go… A public option can achieve the goal of bringing meaningful reform to our broken system.”  The bill that emerged from more than a week of closed door meetings is a combination of the Baucus Plan from the Senate Finance Committee and the proposal drafted in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension’s Committee.  Reid said the bill is headed to the CBO for scoring and then will be ready to begin “legislating” it once those results are returned.

As to having 60 votes to pass it….Harry Reid seemed less sure of himself but stated that the addition of the public option makes him confident that he will have the support of his caucus.  Translation… without it I would not have had the support to pass it.  Reid also commented on whether or not he will still have the vote of Maine Senator Olympia Snowe stating that he understood that he would lose her vote with the inclusion of the public option but stated, ”There will come a time, I hope, where she sees the wisdom of supporting a health care bill after having an opportunity … to offer amendments.”

The White House is reportedly happy with this plan as well.  It had been rumored that the President supported a more moderate approach, but Press Secretary Robert Gibbs had the following to say yesterday of the proposal:

“He’s also pleased that the Senate has decided to include a public option for health coverage, in this case with an allowance for states to opt out,” Gibbs said. “As he said to Congress and the nation in September, he supports the public option because it has the potential to play an essential role in holding insurance companies accountable through choice and competition.”

When asked about the lack of Republican support, Reid seemed unaffected by the fact that there was none to speak of.   He said, “I feel good about the consensus that was reached within our caucus and with the White House…And we’re all optimistic about reform because of the unprecedented momentum that now exists.”  He then went on to add that he was “always looking for Republicans… it’s just a little hard to find them….When I came here to the Senate we had a lot of moderate Republicans… But, of course, now, the moderates are extremely limited.  I could count them on two fingers.”

The addition of the public option all but eliminates the possibility for Republican support and the absence of the “trigger” provision appears to have taken Senator Snowe out of the fold as well.  The fate of the bill will ultimatlely lie with moderate Democrats uncomfortable with the public option.  This will be of no surprise to Reid who had to weigh the impact of this small undefinable group versus that of the group of Democratic Senators who pledged to vote no on any bill that didn’t contain the public option.

The proposal now moves to the full Senate floor for the amendment process.  We will all eagerly await the CBO scoring, which will be absolutely impossible to understand with this opt out provision included.  How they will crunch the numbers for all the variables involved is far above my pay grade and well beyond my intellectual limits.  50 states = 50 potential thank you but no thank you’s… and they have four years to make the decision.  I would say that there will be some gray areas in this report.  I mean no disrespect to the CBO with that comment either.  It is mind numbing to me to even think about how they will estimate the costs of this program, but that’s what they do, so we will see.

Where is the House on its version of the healthcare legislation?

Pelosi counting votes – she doesn’t have the 218 needed for Robust Public Option…

Tags: baucus bill, Democrats, finance committee, Gibbs, Harry Reid, health committee, healthcare, insurance, Obamacare, opt out, Pelosi, Press Secretary, public option, senate, Snowe, states

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 3:58 am and is filed under DOMESTIC ISSUES, ECONOMY-BUSINESS, THE LIBERAL-DEMS, Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.