By my count, Democrats have offered three different amendments that, if approved, would result in the adoption of a public health insurance plan. The first, proposed by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) calls for the creation of a fairly robust public option much like the plan originally drafted by the House of Representatives. It would pay providers Medicare rates plus a small bonus for those practitioners who already take Medicare patients.
That will be a telling vote, but more telling will be the votes on the other two public option proposals. The first, sponsored by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) would create a so-called “level playing field” public option, which wouldn’t be permitted to set rates. The second, offered by Schumer and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), would create a very similar public option, this one imported from the Senate HELP committee’s bill.
Rockefeller’s plan would please reformers and liberals, and substantively makes more sense on a cost control level. But what makes the other two amendments more politically interesting is that they put conservative Democrats–particularly Sens. Max Baucus (D-MT), Kent Conrad (D-ND), and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)–on the spot. No longer will they be able to simply dismiss the public option by saying it doesn’t have the votes to pass the Senate. And they won’t be able to honestly oppose these plans on big government grounds.They’ll actually have to go on the record one way or another. And a lot of eyes will be on them when they do.
