Senate Finance Committee approves state-based public options

[cobra de capell]

Senate Finance Committee approves state-based public options

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/6...public-options

The Senate Finance Committee added a quasi-public option to the healthcare reform bill Thursday.

Two days after Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and a few other Democrats joined Republicans to defeat amendments to create a national government-run public option health insurance program, the committee voted in favor of a proposal by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) to enable states to form their own public options.

"This proposal is about giving federal dollars to the states and putting them in the driver's seat," Cantwell said. "It is a public plan, but negotiated with the private sector."

All Democrats except Sen. Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) voted to support the Cantwell amendment and all Republicans voted against it. Baucus, who has resisted adding a public option of any kind to his bill based on the argument that there is not enough support in the Senate, was enthusiastic about Cantwell's proposal. "This is a great amendment," he said.
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Interesting workaround, still BS.

[Excaliber]

That is interesting, hopefully we'll get some additional details in the near future.

[cobra de capell]

Actually, there is nothing interesting about it - it's more BS and the bill needs to be killed.

It sounds more like the states will have state subsidized private insurance policies for fairly poor people, and the federal government would reimburse a portion of the state subsidy payments to the private insurance companies supplying the insurance to the poor person.

In other words, this is a back door way of cutting the cost of the federal plan by saying the states will be able to negotiate cheap rates on insurance policies for poor people. Without the CBO scoring it we’ll never know if this saves money, or will it force cuts in benefits to poor people, and raise the rates on everyone else. This could potentially bankrupt states as well.

[392cobra]

Sen. Reid put into it that his State and 3-4 others are exempted from it.He said Nevada Could Not Afford It.

The estimated cost to Texas is in the 4-5 Billion per year range.

[Excaliber]

Well, looks like we need to go back to plan 1.

Federal Public Option across the board, mandate that ALL must sign up.

[392cobra]

Reid said Nevada could not afford to PAY for but they would still receive what ever there is to receive.

Remember,he is a Soc...err...Liberal.

[Jamo]

Originally Posted by 392cobra

Reid said Nevada could not afford to PAY for but they would still receive what ever there is to receive.

Remember,he is a Soc...err...Liberal...moron.

Fixed it for ya.

[392cobra]

Thanks.