Jay Rockefeller wasn't the only Democrat to go to the White House yesterday. Senate Finance Committee member, and Baucus debacle critic, Ron Wyden also met with Obama, along with his Healthy Americans Act cosponsor, Republican Bob Bennett.
The meeting late Wednesday afternoon with Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden and GOP Sen. Bob Bennett was not on the President's public schedule, but senior administration officials confirmed it took place and characterized it as being part of Obama's ongoing effort to reach out to lawmakers in both parties. Wyden and Bennett have long pushed a bipartisan reform bill that would create state-run insurance exchanges through which consumers could select various plans, including their existing employer-sponsored plan.
Republicans officials privately contend the meeting, which came on the same day Baucus rolled out his plan, suggests the president is looking for alternative legislative vehicles that could attract GOP support as the clock continues to tick on the reform effort.
The White House is saying the timing of the meeting on the same day as the Baucus debacle release is purely coincidental. Perhaps, or perhaps it's recognition that the Baucus debacle is DOA, and was an attempt at exploring what else might be out there. The thought that the magic bullet to bipartisan reform might be Wyden/Bennett, given the Republican commitment to blocking any healthcare reform at any cost, is pretty naive. But if it means Obama is putting aside Baucus, hallelujah.
So what does Wyden say happened in the meeting? He's keeping relatively mum on that, but is using the fact that it happened as a way to push what, as I've argued before, is one of the better ideas floating out there for this reform package, his Free Choice Act. Note, this is not the Wyden/Bennett bill, it's a separate amendment to the existing bills that would open up the exchanges the various bills create to everyone, not just to the uninsured. He has an op-ed in the New York Times today about this proposal, and appeared this morning on MSNBC's "Morning Meeting." Watch:
He's right in his assertion that
Ultimately the status quo caucus led by the powerful insurance interests don't want this kind of competition. They are slicing a fat hog and I had a chance, with Senator Bennett of Utah, to be with the President yesterday. And in effect what we were saying is "Look, you can't change the American health system, you can't hold insurance companies accountable, you can't protect taxpayers, you can't get premiums down, without choice and competition.
and his proposal would help in that. But it's not the be all and end all for solving our insurance industry woes. The market isn't enough to achieve that, or we wouldn't see the kind of state-by-state monopolies that the big insurers now hold. This proposal is a great idea, but it will only really work to achieve all of Wyden's goals if those plans that all Americans could choose from in the exchange include a viable public option. The exchange is a great idea, and opening it up to everyone an even better idea, but additional regulations basically written by former industry hacks--as the Baucus debacle was--and existing insurers "competing" against each other isn't going to cut it alone.
So hopefully Sen. Wyden, in addition to fighting for his Free Choice Act in committee mark-up next week, will be fighting just as hard for the public option. Because without it, even his improvement to the exchange is going to fall flat.