Last stand for the public option in health reform bill

by: Chris Bowers

Fri Mar 12, 2010 at 11:56

"I want to be crystal clear: Sen. Durbin and the rest of the Senate Leadership will be aggressively whipping FOR the public option if it is included in the reconciliation bill the House sends over. Conversely, the Leaders will whip against any attempt to alter or amend the bill if the public option is not in it (or as your email says - whip against adding the public option as an amendment in the Senate.)

The reason is simple. There can be no amendments - good or bad - to the reconciliation bill once the House passes it and sends it to the Senate. The House will not do step one (passing the Senate healthcare bill in the first place) if they do not have assurances that the fixes they want (i.e., the fixes in their reconciliation bill) will be passed unchanged by the Senate."

This is the same point I argued last week: the public option must be in the reconciliation bill that the House sends to the Senate in order to have any chance.  Because of the leaderships twin desires not to blow up any deals on votes once the bills reach the floor, and their desire to stop the Republican strategy of filibuster by amendment, they are not going to allow any strengthening amendments to the health reform bills to pass.  This includes a public option amendment.

However, it is highly unlikely that there is a public option in the House reconciliation bill.  Two weeks ago, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it was off the table.  So, the only way to get it in the bill is through the Budget Committee markup of the bill (which will happen next week sometime), after someone proves that there are 216 votes for a reconciliation fix that includes a public option.  That isn't much time, but it also isn't entirely impossible.

Now, given that the House is apparently going to have to find the votes for health reform without the Stupak bloc, there are good reasons to think that the House does not have 216 votes for a health reform reconciliation fix without the public option.  The Democratic leadership is going to have to find votes for passage among a number of Representatives who voted against the House health reform bill back in November.  You can see the list of those members here, and it is not a pretty one when you are looking for about a dozen votes in favor of a health reform bill that includes a public option.

That is the task ahead for the public option--find 216 votes in about five days.  CREDO and the PCCC have already sent out action alerts urging people to start this last ditch effort.  If you haven't already received an email from them, visit their websites, and join in.