Best news I've heard in weeks. Reid is allegedly confident that he has 60 votes for a public option in the health care bill:
I am told that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is leaning toward including the creation of a new government-run insurance program – the so-called public option – in the health care reform bill he will bring to the full Senate in the coming weeks.
Democratic sources tell me that Reid – after a series of meetings with Democratic moderates – has concluded he can pass a bill with a public option.
This public option would include the State opt-out provision, and would not be tied to medicare rates:
Another important point: Reid’s version of the public option is different from the more liberal version advocated by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in two key ways: 1) Reid’s version would allow individual states to opt-out of the program, giving public option critics the chance to say that their states retain the right to scrap the idea; and, 2) Under Reid’s plan, the new government insurance program would have to negotiate payment rates with health care providers. Under Pelosi’s, payment rates would be tied to the lower rates paid by Medicare.
If you remember, Howard Dean is OK with the State opt-out provision, and the HELP bill was not tied to medicare rates, so that was never realistic in the Senate anyway. I am OK with both of these provisions (while of course hope we get something stronger after reconciliation with the House).
The article goes on to say that Baucus is "apoplectic," and is at "DEFCON 1." Sorry Max, Obama is President, not you. Feel free to vote against the Bill, but we all know you won't be the one to single-handedly kill HCR by voting against cloture, right?