Next Option

So the Senate Finance Committee voted down both the Rockefeller and the softer Schumer Public Option amendments to the Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) health insurance reform bill, the one that his detractors believe has been written for insurance companies to benefit over the public. As in over a Public Option.

It's very simple: America supports a Public Option. Doctors support a Public Option. Just as we have both private and public universities, there would be choice for all, no one forced to go into the Public Option plan. Without the Public Option not only is there no competitive price check on For-Profit Insurance companies (as in 30% profit or more), any legislation will likely be a huge giveaway to these insurance companies, in essence rewarding them for decades of bad behavior.

While the loss on both Public Option amendments today wasn't exactly great news, two writers with more knowledge than I believe that the margins of loss, particularly for Schumer's version, were much smaller than expected, and this on the #1 most conservative committee in the Senate. Four other Senate committees have the Public Option in their versions, so today's bad news could mean good news later.

I've said it before and will say it again: passing the bill with a robust Public Option intact assures Democratic victory in 2010. Without it, watch the Democratic Party base crumble.

Which is why no political GOPer is supporting it.