Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) Thomas Carper (D-DE), Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) opposed the amendment with R

BLUE DOG DEMOCRATS ARE KILLING THE HEALTH CARE BILL...Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

(All Headline News article, Kris Alingod - AHN Contributor)

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The Senate Finance Committee late Wednesday voted down amendments from Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) that would've included a public option in the health reform bill under debate for the second week. Some lawmakers and pundits have said the Finance panel's measure is the only one among five proposals in Congress with any hope of passage this year, since Republicans refuse to support a government health insurance plan.

By an 8-15 vote, committee members rejected a measure from Rockefeller that would have created a voluntary, public insurance program run by the Health Department and that has payment rates based on Medicare provider payments for the first two years of coverage.

Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and three other Democrats -- Thomas Carper (D-DE), Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) -- opposed the amendment along with all Republican members of the committee.

Rockefeller, chairman of the Health Subcommittee in the Finance panel, said in a statement, "I have traveled across West Virginia talking with people about their health care, and what I hear is that they need another option to buy affordable insurance - one that actually covers their medical care and helps drive down costs. Our job is to protect the American people, not protect insurance company profits. The American people have asked for real solutions that protect their families and their economic security - a public option does just that."

Carper said he did not vote for the amendment because "it would give the government an unfair advantage in the marketplace by allowing it to negotiate prices initially based on Medicare. That would stifle competition, not increase it, and the end result, I believe, would not be good for the consumer."

The measure from Schumer failed by a vote of 10-13.

Baucus was joined by only two Democrats -- Conrad and Lincoln -- in voting against it. The amendment would've included the public option plan passed the Senate Health Committee into the Finance panel's bill. Unlike the Rockefeller proposal, it does not tie its payments to Medicare and immediately negotiates its payment rates.

Two Democrats who expressed concern about tying Medicare payments to the public option, Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), voted to support both amendments.

"We should create a non-profit entity to compete with insurance companies to offer the best care at the lowest cost," Bingaman, a member of the "Gang of Six" centrist committee members who negotiated the bill for debate, said in a statement. "While neither public option amendment considered today was approved, we still have an opportunity to write a bill that encourages healthy competition."

"Without the ability to hold insurers accountable for their costs and quality of service, without the ability to get a better deal and stop the ongoing erosion of wages, most working families will be no better off after this bill passes than they are today," Wyden added.

A public option is a government-run, voluntary healthcare program that would compete with private insurance by offering cheaper coverage.

Democrats support it because according to them it would help make the costs overhauling the nation's healthcare system and expanding coverage to the 47 million uninsured more affordable. The GOP says a public plan would cause more job losses, impose new taxes and would not reduce costs nor provide fair competition.

Unlike other current Democratic bills, Baucus' bill features non-profit insurance cooperatives instead of a public option.

Committee debate on the $856 billion measure began last Tuesday amid criticisms from liberals who want a robust public option and more subsidies for the poor, and from Republicans who say the bill adds taxes to small business, and fails to ensure that funding excludes abortion and illegal immigrants.

The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan agency, said in its assessment the bill is budget-neutral, actually costs $774 billion and would reduce the deficit by $49 billion in 10 years.

Rockefeller has warned that a coop model is "untested and unsubstantiated," citing statements from the USDA and the GAO. Conrad, the progenitor of the proposal to use cooperatives, has responded by citing successful cooperatives such as Ace Hardware and Group Health, a health care co-op in Washington state with 600,000 members.

"The co-op structure was offered because it fulfills at least some of the goals of both sides of the debate," Conrad also said. "It is a competitive delivery model that could compete with private, for-profit insurance companies, but at the same time it is membership-owned and controlled, not government-run."

Baucus' bill, which also requires all Americans except the very poor to have coverage or pay a fine, is also the only proposal in Congress that has yet to be reported out of committee.

The Senate Health Committee in July approved a $600 billion measure crafted by the late Ted Kennedy that has a "strong" public option.

In the House, the Energy panel has a government insurance plan that allows doctors to negotiate payment rates and costs $900 billion.

The measure has the support of the American Medical Association, which last month partnered with the Federation of American Hospitals, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and Service Employees International Union to launch a pro-administration TV ad on healthcare.

The House Ways and Means and Education Committees have approved a measure costing $1 trillion over 10 years.

The two bills have a tax on the 1.2 percent wealthiest Americans, or those earning more than $350,000.

They also require employers to either offer coverage to employees while contributing toward the premiums, or contribute to covering the costs of coverage by paying the government an equivalent of 8 percent of their workers' payroll. Small businesses with less than $250,000 in annual payroll are exempt from either requirements.