WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus told reporters Monday afternoon that he isn’t sure the Senate can muster the votes needed to pass health care reform that contains a “pure public option.”
“This issue is alive” Baucus told reporters during a teleconference organized by Families USA, a consumer health care  advocate. “We’re looking at it to see what makes the most sense,” the Democrat from Montana said in answer to a question about whether a government-backed health insurance option was still on the table.
“There are various versions of public option being bandied about,” Baucus said. There’s a “pure public option” that’s like Medicare, the federal health insurance plan for the elderly and disabled.
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There’s an “even playing field” public option that depends on negotiated reimbursement rates to help insurers compete for consumers in an insurance exchange. There’s the cooperative option. A late comer to the health care debate: opt-in, opt-out plans which would give each state the ability to join or not join a national public option plan.
Late last month, Baucus voted against two public option amendments to the bipartisan reform plan he and his committee proposed in mid-September, though he has said he supports the notion of a public option.
“The major overall goal here is to get health care reform that passes the Senate,” Baucus said. “I just don’t know if there are 60 votes for the more pure kinds of public option.”
Sixty votes are needed to override a Republican filibuster in the Senate. Baucus’ committee approved a health care reform bill last week, while the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee finalized its bill in early September. The two bills must be combined in a single bill.
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Baucus said he hopes to have one bill on the Senate floor “fairly quickly… I’m confident that we will have a very meaningful health care reform bill on the Senate floor. That means lowering cost. That means a bill that is [federal] deficit neutral over 10 years…
“It’s reform that will protect Americans from harmful insurance industry practices. It will stop companies from denying coverage to those who have pre-existing conditions. It will prevent companies from dropping coverage of Americans who get sick.
“It’s going to be reform that will provide quality health insurance for millions more Americans. It’s also a reform measure that can pass.”
