Here's an article from the Roll Call which seems to say that the Senate moderates are falling in line on the public option. However, it's not the public option as we know it--the Rockefeller public option or the Schumer public option. This coincides with my earlier story about the White House pushing for any form of a public option that they can sell to the centrists and "placate" the liberals. This would be the Snowe trigger or the Carper state public option proposal.
As I've said before, it's a mixed bag of good news and bad news. The good news is that the White House and Senate Democrats know that there's got to be a public option in the final bill or else they'll face huge political backlash. The bad news is that they're looking to push anything that can be called a public option in order to satisfy the base and the worries of "centrist" Democrats in the Senate.
Here's more from the Roll Call, which is behind a firewall, but I've included a link to the full page so you can read the article:
Because the Finance proposal to create nonprofit health insurance cooperatives has not gained much traction with centrists, leaders have instead focused on finding a way to create a public option that could satisfy both liberals’ and moderates’ concerns, while also bringing more competition to private insurers.Many, including White House officials, see the answer to that problem in Sen. Olympia Snowe’s (R-Maine) proposal to create a "trigger" for a public option in the event other health insurance reforms in the bill do not successfully drive down health insurance costs nor increase coverage. The bonus, they calculate, is that Snowe would sign on to such a bill and help the leaders shore up the votes of wavering centrists.
However, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), a leader of the recently formed Moderate Dems Working Group, has proposed allowing states to create public plans or co-ops if they so choose. Last week, senior Democratic aides said the proposal had significant potential as a possible compromise.
As a fallback, Senate Democratic leaders have stepped up their pressure on centrists to stick with the party on procedural votes.
As long as the Senate centrists remain opposed to anything that's an actual public option like the one in the House bill, the Rockefeller proposal, the Schumer proposal, and or the Senate HELP public option, they're really not falling in line for a public option as the article claims they are.
It's why we've got to remain vigilant on what the new "definitions" are going to be for the public option, and to push back against these constant redefinitions. Also, the Snowe trigger isn't off the table, and is still very much alive because as Karen Tumulty at Time says, it was pulled from the Senate Finance Committee mark-up because there were concerns it would be voted down by the liberals along with the Republicans. We'll see if the Snowe trigger is incorporated into the Senate Finance Committee bill by a floor amendment as a way to bridge the division between Senate liberals and moderates.
Let me list for you what shouldn't be called a public option:
- The Maria Cantwell basic health plan amendment isn't administered by the federal government, and it's not a federal insurance plan. The Cantwell amendment allows states to negotiate with private insurers and they can use their subsidies to buy a basic health plan from these private insurers. That's not "public" at all, but rather the allowance of states to buy private subsidized insurance that can be sold to those above 133% and below 200% of FPL. ThinkProgress has more on why it's not a real public option.
- The Snowe trigger, which is a catch-22 designed so that the public option never gets started on a national basis. In Snowe's trigger amendment, if affordable coverage is not available for 95% of a state's residents, then you get a public option in that state. While there are issues with state-based public health insurance options, the catch-22 comes with Snowe's definition of affordability. Affordable is defined as 13% of income. So, if there is no plan in the exchange that costs less than 13% of a person's income, we'd get a public health insurance option. But that calculation of what a plan costs is made after the government pays out subsidies or employers pay their share. And therein lies the catch-22.
- The Carper amendment as an alternative to the public option. It doesn't suffice at all, and actually places more restrictions on states on how to run a public option with a hidden pre-trigger as Jon Walker explains in his article here.
And for some good news, more organizations are joining in support of the public option such as the NAACP Voter Fund, the National Council of La Raza, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the Campaign for Community Change, the United States Student Association and PowerPAC.org. They're joining together in running print and TV ads in support of health care reform that includes a robust public option.
With that said, we'll keep on fighting for what is right, and please help support our work (since we do literally work for you guys) by donating to our fund at Firedoglake! Your donations go to our living stipends, expenses, and travel costs, including awesome tools like these. You also can follow me on Twitter @slinkerwink.