Feingold: No Public Option A "Strong Reason" Not To Support Reform

The major point of contention between the White House and congressional Democrats is now whether a public option for insurance coverage has the 60 votes needed for passage in the Senate. In reporting our piece on the state of play in the health care reform debate, Ryan Grim and I heard the same refrain from a number of sources: Majority Leader Harry Reid's office thinks it can get the support needed to pass a public option with an opt-out provision for states. The White House thinks that Reid's whip count is too optimistic.

Part of the administration's reasoning is that if you don't have Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) on board, you end up losing the votes of a handful of conservative Democrats. So White House officials are pushing an alternative proposal that would have the public plan "triggered" in by economic conditions.

But the equation is more complicated than that. Increasingly, there are senators on the liberal side of the spectrum who say they won't pass a plan that includes the trigger provision.

"To me that would be a very serious gap and it would be a very strong reason not to support it," Sen. Russ Feingold told CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "We need a public option. We need something that would cause some control over the abuses that have occurred in the insurance industry."

Triggers, Feingold added, are "just an invitation for the insurance industry to manipulate the situation for a couple of years just so they can avoid the trigger and so they can convince members of Congress to delay it again. We need to do something now."

Feingold did not say (nor was he asked) if he would participate in a filibuster of a bill that included triggers instead of an opt-out public plan. And that seems likely to be the major question mark going forward. While conservative Democrats may be comfortable allowing the broader effort to pass health care reform fail over their objections to the public plan, it's not clear if their progressive counterparts will make that leap.

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Comments

[stevendedalus3]

02:57 PM on 10/27/2009

Why should there even be a private option? Options only hinder national healthcare.

[WhatHaveWeBecome]

10:32 AM on 10/27/2009

This debate is more about Campaign Fiance reform tha heath care reform.

Get the money out of Washington or we will continue as a third world country.

Perhaps it is time to vote out the incumbents and get some honest folk to represent us.

[formerroadie]

10:23 PM on 10/26/2009

You go Feingold!

[bobm0001]

06:36 PM on 10/26/2009

Without a public option, this health care bill will be nothing more than a big payoff to the health care industry.

[JackedNY]

06:30 PM on 10/26/2009

If Congress can't figure out how to stop medicare fraud [$60 billion per 60 minutes], why should we expect a public health insurance program to be free of fraud and mismanagement?

[GlennInVenice]

09:41 PM on 10/26/2009

I do not expect a public health insurance program free of fraud and mismanagement. It comes with the territory.

If we had a private health care insurance system that was free of fraud and mismanagement you might actually have an arguement against the public option. We don't have that though. Not even close.

We pay more, A LOT MORE, per person for our health care than do countries with single payer. They have proven able to give their people better health care for less money than the current system in the US has.

IF there is no significant improvement with the public option over the current situation it will only be another evidencie of American ineptitude, NOT a flaw with the approach itself.

[formerroadie]

10:24 PM on 10/26/2009

How about the private fraud? Huh? Ridiculous way to argue there bud.

[BocaMom]

05:34 PM on 10/26/2009

We totally agree with you. Without a public option, there is no health care reform! It's just political spin and a political win without real health reform. I wish more Senators had the guts and integrity of Senator Feingold! But most of them are just empty suits.

[dfranz]

05:22 PM on 10/26/2009

This Health Care Bill is about consumers, not the Health Insurance Companies. If a bill comes out that does not meet that maxim, it will be garbage, no better than the drug bill passed under Bush which prevents Medicare from negotiating with the Drug Companies.

I agree with Senator Feingold, a crappy bill is not worth voting on and if the President cannot make it happen within his own party, then the blame will fall on him and the Democratic leadership. The people want it, they voted you in, now make it happen.

If it does not, there will be he!l to pay.

[maxwells]

04:29 PM on 10/26/2009

Any Dem, even a Naderite, who ignores the political calculus here is being naive. We need to buck up and solidify. Remember Bill/Hillary went down in flames on this in '92. But that was then; this is now.

Obama knows the Senate, having spent years there. In politics, he plays a hypermodern strategy, which means it's a minor concern how he looks while getting to a win. Look how he peeled off Big Pharma from the git go, getting them to pony up $150M in advertising to stay out of the initial dog fight. Do you hear Big Pharma making noise lately? Why is that, eh?

Obama will go full-court press on the public option IF and only IF he sees Harry Reid's boys and girls getting to 60 votes. Otherwise, the Repubs are drooling over the prospect that if he loses this fight, his next term implodes with it. Given all the insurance lobby-supported Dems: Baucus, Conrad, Melendez, Nelson, etc., Obama knew single payer wasn't on the table this go-round.

And don't forget, Canada passed national health insurance only province by province. Took them 10 years. But also don't forget, even Mexico passed its own version 4 years ago.

We're bringing up the rear on what other first tier nations have taken for granted for decades. And you know why. Let's not blow this one.

[ByersL]

02:32 PM on 10/26/2009

Once again, the Democrats will prove that we can't govern. Sorry folks, but to the world, no hcr at all is going to make us look incredibly weak. I want reform, but not at the expense of no bill at all.

[jbeach]

03:16 PM on 10/26/2009

If they are going to make having insurance mandatory, they had better have a public option. Period.

Otherwise it is nothing but a transparent giveaway to insurance companies which I will NOT participate in. And I will vote against every single politician who voted for it as well.

[HowietheScreamer]

03:44 PM on 10/26/2009

So basically, you support any bill that comes down the pike? Like a redo of the Bushie perscription drug benefit to Big Pharma? Sorry, better no bill than another $ity give away to the greedy corporate interests.

[Okieborn]

01:45 PM on 10/26/2009

I agree Senator Feingold !!
Feingold for President in 2012 !!!

[esalter]

03:01 PM on 10/26/2009

I do too, why should we allow the republicans and blue dogs keep us from real reform. The wasy bill reads now the only ones helped are the insuracne companies. This is not about reelcting President Obama, this is bigger than him. He needs to put his ego on the back burner and this time fight for the American people. There will be plenty of time to work on his legacy. Nothing is not better than something meaningful. The trigger is not meaningful.

[Elbrando]

12:42 PM on 10/26/2009

The opt-out public option seems to be the way to go. If your state doesn't need it, fine. If it does so much the better. Any state the has both of it's senators vote against it should AUTOMATICALLY not get a public option.

[ChelseaC]

01:40 PM on 10/26/2009

What IS the "public option", is it MEDICARE PART E? Who will be eligible?
Last Monday,Rachel Maddow stated on MSNBC that 9 out of 10 people WILL NOT be eligible
to join the "public option."

I want to KNOW what the "public option" is.

I support single payer HR-676.
http://www.pnhp.org/

[StopMakingSense2]

11:51 AM on 10/26/2009

Russ is my guy! Go Russ!! Someone who can reason and is for the working class. We need more.

[Elbrando]

12:43 PM on 10/26/2009

Russ is in my state of WI and running for reelection. I would urge people to support him for his bid.

[Davyhulme]

10:22 AM on 10/26/2009

I would like to see the names off all the Democrats and the Republicans that are not willing to vote yes on the "Public Option". Make it clear in all the newspapers accross the country! Let the people start responding to these politicians. I have heard that 70 plus percent of Americans want this health plan. This means that these politicians are not representing their constituents, they had all better get on board. The republicans are making a very big mistake by not voting on this and they will see the fallout on the next election!

[pj-smith]

09:27 AM on 10/26/2009

why cant i say the J word which is a religion?

you treat the J word like the N word....

[WhatHaveWeBecome]

09:06 AM on 10/26/2009

This is the guy who should be President.

He is smart, not connected to the power structure - in other words not beholden to the Bush's or the Clinton's and unlike Obama would stand for peace and not war.

I bet Gitmo would be closed and Bush and Cheney would be at the Hague where they belong. (In front of a firing squad).

[pj-smith]

09:23 AM on 10/26/2009

I guess if a man of color can be elceted president, we can elect a jewish man.

Though if the corporations do not like him because he is not a corporatist, he can't get elected no matter who is is...

[WhatHaveWeBecome]

10:33 AM on 10/27/2009

Sad and true.

[ByersL]

02:33 PM on 10/26/2009

he's been married four times. apparently doesn't get along too well with others....

[WhatHaveWeBecome]

10:33 AM on 10/27/2009

Who cares - I do not.

The man is always on the right side of the equation.