Healthcare: House Democrats May Drop Public Option

The Associated Press reported December 27 that House Democrats might bend to the will of the Senate and drop the public option in an effort to reach a compromise health insurance reform bill to send to President Obama for signature.

The story says, "Two House Democrats who favor a government insurance plan, a central element of health care legislation passed in their chamber, acknowledged Sunday it might have to be sacrificed as negotiators work out a final agreement with the Senate. Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, the No. 3 Democrat in the House and one who had appealed to President Barack Obama not to yield on the public plan, set out conditions for yielding himself. Asked during rounds on the Sunday news shows whether he could vote for a final bill that does not embrace a public plan, Clyburn said: 'Yes, sir, I can.'"

No surprise here, and while Clyburn doesn't speak for all House Democrats, he is a pretty senior guy and the rest are likely to fall in line to give the President a bill, even if that bill looks nothing like what the President originally wanted.

The story continues, "While insisting 'it's not dead,' Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said he recognizes realities in the Senate, where Democrats had to scrape up every vote from their side even to pass a bill without a government plan to compete in the private insurance marketplace. 'Before the House was to give up the public option, we would want to be persuaded that there are other mechanisms in whatever bill comes out that will keep down premiums,' said Van Hollen, appearing to sketch out a bottom line without a government plan necessarily included. 'We've got to make sure that the final product is affordable.'"

Well, then, Mr. Van Hollen, you might as well say you're not voting for the bill because it does nothing to keep premiums down and it is nowhere near affordable (unless Democrats actually cut Medicare, something they've never done in the past and are unlikely to do in the future).

And finally, this, "Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., underscored the divisions Democrats will need to bridge when negotiators from the House and Senate meet next month to reconcile the two bills. He said there will need to be more give on the House side than the Senate, which took weeks to find the 60 votes needed for passage. 'If we are going to have a final law, it will look a lot more like the Senate version than the House version,' Menendez asserted."

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20091227/D9CRSDM81.html