Healthcare reform will include a public plan, Sen. Baucus says
05 06 09 - 11:51
Gov’t health plan will be part of package, Baucus says
By Matthew DoBias - Modern Healthcare
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on Thursday said healthcare reform legislation would contain a government-backed health plan even while his Republican counterparts bashed such a provision.
“I think a bill that passes the Senate will have some version of a public option,” Baucus, flanked by key lawmakers who are crafting a bill to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system, said after a late afternoon meeting.
Nevertheless, many Republicans say they remain unswayed in their opposition. “Our caucus is very, very much against a public option,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Finance Committee. He also said that provisions requiring employers to pay an added tax if they don’t offer health coverage to their workers are also dealbreakers. “And that’s all you can say,” he said. “There are no follow-up questions you can ask me. There’s no further statements I can make about it.”
The comments were made after the main players in the Senate continued to hold a series of meetings—sometimes with members of the opposite parties, sometimes not.
Baucus and Grassley were joined by Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), who’s heading the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and his Republican counterpart, Sen. Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.).
Baucus, however, hinted that a public option would likely look and feel more like a private plan, adhering to open-market principles and “where the government’s thumb is very, very light.”