Monday
Oct262009
Rockefeller Says He Defended CHIP, Supports Public Option With Opt-In Clause
Monday, October 26, 2009 at 2:04PM
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.”
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.”
Opting-Out Would Be "Political Suicide" For States Says Health Care Analyst
Michael Cannon, Director of Health Policy Studies at the CATO Institute, said today that it would be "political suicide" for states to choose to opt-out of the public option plan.
Democrats in Congress, led by Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), are pushing for an opt-out provision within the public option, or government-run health insurance plan, as a way to demonstrate to states that they will not be forced to partake in the plan.
Referring to the public option plan as "Fannie Med," Cannon said that Reid and others are using the opt-out provision as a way of putting pressure on states to subscribe.
“The taxpayers in each state are going to have to be subsidizing Fannie Med. And what Governor or state official is going to say ‘I know your tax dollars are subsidizing this government program, but I’m not going to let you get your tax dollars back by participating in this program?’ That would be political suicide for state officials. And supporters of Fannie Med know it would be political suicide,” Cannon said.
Cannon argued that supporters of an opt-out provision are merely interested in finding way for the government to seize more control of the nation's healthcare system, and nothing more.
“They are counting on this to get their proposal through Congress and they know that it’s not going to inhibit the new government program’s ability to drive private insurers out of business,” Cannon said.
Cannon said even proponents of the public option plan are aware that it would crush competition in the marketplace, and echoed the theory that President Barack Obama favors the public option plan because it would lead to single-payer health insurance in the U.S.
“What they call public option is not really a public option. That’s a ruse,” he said.