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Saturday, August 08, 2009
Bingaman: 'Public Option' on the Ropes
By Michael Coleman
Copyright © 2009 Albuquerque Journal
Journal Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — Sen. Jeff Bingaman — one of six senators trying to hammer out a compromise health care proposal in the Senate Finance Committee — says he still supports a so-called "public option" coverage plan but that overall Senate support is fading.
And he said a compromise proposal to establish health care co-ops, or nonprofit, member-operated health cooperatives, to compete with insurers could achieve many of the same goals.
Under a plan advanced by Sen. Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat who also chairs the Senate Budget Committee, the government would ante up as much as $6 billion for loans and grants to allow hospitals, businesses, doctors, and others to form nonprofit health insurance cooperative networks at the national, state and local levels.
"I voted for a public option and I prefer a public option, but you could make a good case you could accomplish a lot of the same things through this mechanism," Bingaman said in a telephone interview with the Journal on his way home from Washington.
Most Democrats like the public option, arguing it would boost competition for health care insurance and drive costs down. Republicans oppose it, contending it eventually would drive private insurers out of business and lead to a government takeover of health care.
"I don't think its dead in the water," Bingaman said of the public option, "but there is a lot of opposition."
"I don't know of any Republican in the Senate who has said they would support a public option, and several Democrats have said they would not. As they learn more about what's involved, those views could change."
Democrats hold a 60-seat Senate majority, but would likely need all 60 votes to fend off a bill-killing filibuster if a public option is included.
Bingaman is part of the so-called "Gang of Six," a group of three Democrat and three Republican senators. The group has spent several weeks holed up in a Capitol Hill conference room for hours at a time working to forge a bipartisan proposal to present to the Senate Finance Committee, and eventually the full Senate.
Senators began their August recess on Friday and won't return to Washington until early September. The House started its August break last week. Although committees have acted on individual bills, neither chamber has passed legislation to overhaul the health care system, despite President Barack Obama's urging.
The Gang of Six met with Obama on Thursday at the White House to give him an update.
"He encouraged us to keep up the effort, and try to find something we felt comfortable with," Bingaman said.
Bingaman said he would not oppose a bill simply because it did not contain a public option.
"The important thing is to give people choices as to where they buy their health insurance," Bingaman said. "My preference would be to do it through a public option but if some other decision was made to do it through a co-op or some other avenue I don't think that's the end of the world. I would not oppose a bill because of how it came down on that issue."
Some liberal Democrats have criticized Bingaman and other Senate negotiators for failing — in their view — to strongly support the public option provision or even a single-payer plan.
But Bingaman told the Journal there is more to health care reform than that.
"There is so much more of importance in this legislation — reforming the insurance markers, keeping Medicare costs under control and a whole variety of other things that need to be done," Bingaman said.
The senator said he looks forward to hearing New Mexicans' views on health care during the recess. He has no public forums planned, but his staff said he will be meeting with constituents and traveling around the state to discuss health care and other issues.
Bingaman said he hopes to use the recess to have a "meaningful discussion" and reach some consensus. He rejected the notion Democrats are losing the battle of public opinion, but acknowledged the current political climate.
"I don't know that I'd say we are nervous, but we are certainly aware this is not a done deal," Bingaman said. "It could go either way. I hope very much we can get the support we need both in the Congress and in the country to get health care reform."
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