Everybody's getting in the negotiating game.
Snowe, emerging from a meeting on the first floor of the Capitol, Saturday afternoon, told a few reporters hovering outside the room that she had been approached earlier that morning about attending.
She said that no agreement had yet been reached, but that the group was considering "another option," aside from those already under discussion. An agreement had been reached that it would not be publicly discussed, she said, until more details were worked out. Earlier Saturday, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) also mentioned the new option being kicked around but said he couldn't discuss it.
Kerry said that Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) was one of the leading intellectual fathers of this new approach, an assertion Snowe confirmed, adding that Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) were also closely involved.
Sens. Mark Udall (D-Colorado), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) also attended the meeting.
Given that none of these members is in leadership, it's unclear if the path these guys are taking is where leadership intends to go or not. It's also unclear, and from the sounds of it unlikely, that the public option alternative they're considering would count as a public option for the Senate's progressives, particulary Brown and Sanders who have emerged as the key Senators with whom leadership is negotiating. Here's what we know, according to HuffPo's Ryan Grim:
Pryor declined to get too specific, but did say that a leading proposal involves increasing the ability of the Office of Personnel Management -- which oversees the federal employee health plans -- to negotiate on behalf of individuals and small businesses. Pryor told a HuffPost and an AP reporter that it was unclear how exactly it would be set up, but that it would take the place of the public option managed by the Health and Human Services Secretary.
Lincoln, also interviewed after the meeting, said that the OPM plan would not need additional seed money and would be similar to a proposal she introduced earlier this year called the SHOP Act. She said that she continues to oppose a "government-run plan," but that this proposal would meet the twin goals of keeping down costs and increasing competition. Snowe and Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) are cosponsors of the SHOP Act.
The Lincoln proposal appears to be the alternative option that the conservatives and centrists discussed at the earlier meeting. Snowe had said the proposal was both old and new and Lincoln's measure answers that riddle.
It does little, however, to answer liberals' demands for a nationwide public option. Pryor said, however, that the progressive senators they met with were willing to continue discussions and cautioned that it would be several days before a deal was reached.
OPM basically oversees the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan and is, of course, a government agency, so how this isn't government run is a bit of a mystery, but I guess Lincoln can use whatever definition she wants. The plans within the FEHBP are all private insurers, of course, so while there'd be a bargaining advantage to adding so many more people to that pool, it wouldn't do much toward creating competition overall in the system. It's also unclear what role there would be for the exchange in this system. Which wouldn't be a huge tragedy, all in all. Get rid of the exchange and you get rid of the Stupak problem, basically.
There will be more meetings tomorrow, including a visit from Obama, so nothing should be considered as final yet.
