The Senate Finance Committee has voted down two amendments that would have added a public option to the Senate health care bill.  The Committee Chair, Senator Max Bacus, was among those opposing the amendments.  Although Bacus supports the idea of a public option, he stated that he opposed the amendments because he believes a bill with a public option would not get enough votes in the full Senate.

Estimates show that between 54 and 57 Senators support the public option.  So, what’s the problem?  Isn’t that a majority?  Yes, but a bill with a public option would need 60 votes to prevent a Republican filibuster, lengthy debating to delay or even stop a vote.  (That is, 60 votes for “cloture”, or ending the debate, not 60 votes in favor of the bill.)

Senate Republicans and some conservative Democrats are concerned that the public option may be very expensive.  Many of them believe that it would force private insurance companies out of business.

However, the public option is still a possibility.  One way the public option could still happen is budget reconciliation.  A bill with a public option could be passed with only 51 votes through a process called “budget reconciliation”, which limits debate to 20 hours and does not allow filibustering. 

As the name suggest, “budget reconciliation” is for bills that affects the budget.  In order to pass a “Democrats only” bill, the health care reform bill would have to be rewritten in such a way that every provision affects the budget.  In order for a bill to be passed this way, it has to be approved by the Senate parliamentarian.  The parliamentarian is not a Senator, but an appointee of the Senate.  The parliamentarian would be able to cut any pieces of the bill that he considers unrelated to the budget.  This gives the parliamentarian a great deal of power, which may make the budget reconciliation process an unlikely last resort.

Sources:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/29/senate.public.option/index.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8282262.stm

http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/1264-A-few-more-takes-on-the-Finance-Committee-s-rejection-of-the-public-option

http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/1262-Public-Option-Rejected-Twice-What-Happens-Next-

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=a5R5Kp1llkYk

Filed under: health care reform, News by admin