Rockefeller Says He Defended CHIP, Supports Public Option With Opt-In Clause 

Monday, October 26, 2009 at 2:04PM
Talk Radio News Service (Admin) in CHIP, Chaiman Max Baucus, Congress, Frontpage 1, Healthy Future Act, Meagan Wiseley, News/Commentary, Sen. John Rockefeller, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Trigger, opt-out, public option

By Meagan Wiseley - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

On Monday Senate Finance Committee member and Chairman of the Finance Committee on Health Care Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said he believes that his committee's bill is nowhere near perfect, but is significantly better than the “status quo.”

“I’ve made no secret to the fact that we could’ve dug deeper, we could’ve gotten a lot more creative and we could’ve worked together much better, but the Gods were not leaning in that direction,” Rockefeller said of the America's Healthy Future Act of 2009.

The Democrat from West Virginia expressed content over the fact that the committee successfully defended the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), or Children’s Medicaid. He revealed that on the last day of the committee’s mark up of the bill, Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) asked him to withdraw the CHIP amendment.

“The Chairman came up to me and actually asked me to withdraw the amendment, which I found most extraordinary,” said Rockefeller, “I refused to, and so we prevailed because the amendment speaks so strongly for itself,” he added.

Rockefeller said he does believe that a final, comprehensive reform bill will pass the Senate, adding that a public option is the only way to keep insurance companies “honest.”

Rockefeller said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is going to do the “best he can” while molding the two Senate health care bills together. Reid is expected to announce later today his intention to vie for a public option that would include a provision to allow individual states to opt-out.

“I believe that the merged bill will have a strong public option, my guess is that it will be an opt-out,” Rockefeller said, adding that he would prefer the opt-out plan over an opt-in.

In addition, he said there is no need for a trigger for a public option. He believes a public option will keep insurance companies competitive and will cover those who cannot afford private insurance, rendering a trigger option needless.

Rockefeller closed by saying, “We have a long way to go on all of this.”

Article originally appeared on Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media (http://www.talkradionews.com/).