Silence is golden. That’s Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s mantra as he heads the delicate process of crafting a single Senate health care bill from two separate packages. But so far, the House’s swift and decisive action on the public option seems to have had little impact on the hiss position.
Reid is adamant that the insurance industry should lose a decades-old anti-trust exemption that allows companies to divvy up markets and agree not to compete against one another. But he and other senators are still mum about whether they’ll systematically end the non-competitive nature of health insurance markets by including a public option in the Senate’s health care bill.
At an event today focusing on the anti-trust issue, Reid said that he, along with Senate health care leaders, and White House officials will discuss the public option in yet another closed door meeting tonight.
After the event, I asked Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to describe what, if any, impact House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to move forward with a robust public option will have on the Senate’s deliberation. Schumer was uncharacteristically reserved.
“The House has its position, the Senate has its and as Senator Reid said he’s working on it, we’re all working on it, to come up with a position that’s good for the caucus,” Schumer said.
