After weeks of secretive talks, three Democrats and three Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee were edging closer to a compromise that excludes a requirement many congressional Democrats seek for large businesses to offer coverage to their workers. Nor would there be a provision for a government insurance option, despite Obama’s support for such a plan, officials said.
… “We’re going to get agreement here,” Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the Finance Committee chairman, said Monday. “The group of six really wants to get to ‘yes.’”
So there’s not a public option in the Finance Committee’s bill — which should come as no great surprise to anyone who’s been following this debate. Instead, there’s Kent Conrad’s plan for regional, non-profit cooperatives. The real fight over the public option will take place when the HELP Committee’s bill, which does include a public option, is reconciled with the Finance Committee’s version, and/or when the Senate’s version is ultimately reconciled with the House version.
The bigger news, rather, is that Baucus’s bill will not contain an employer mandate — a requirement that employers provide health insurance to their employees — even though it does contain an individual mandate.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce praised Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and his band of bipartisan negotiators for their efforts to craft a deal on healthcare reform, doing so in a letter Monday that is sharply critical of his House counterparts.
.jpg)
