Black Caucus to press for public option in final health care bill

Tri-State Defender December 30, 2009

WASHINGTON - As U.S. Senators and members of the House of Representatives prepare to negotiate to combine the two distinctly different health care bills, members of the Congressional Black Caucus are vowing once again to push for a public option to make the final bill affordable for their largely African-American and low income constituencies.

In a joint statement released just before the Senate's long-awaited Christmas Eve passage of the bill, CBC Chair Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-chair Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), said, "If the bill requires people to buy health insurance, there must be a public option to bring down costs by providing lower-cost competition to private insurers and choice to consumers."

Translation: Be ready for acrimonious debate before the final version goes back before both houses for final passage and ultimately to the White House for signing by President Obama. The public option barely squeaked by (220-215) when the House passed the bill by five votes on November 7.

The Senate left the public option out of the bill because it was a deal-breaker for conservative Democrats. The bill passed 60-39, disabling a filibuster by Republicans with the 60 votes or three-fifths of the Senate. Fifty-eight Democratic senators were joined by two Independents.

President Obama - in route to achieving a key campaign promise - has said the public option is not absolutely necessary as long as the health bill has other key components, such as Medicaid, that could serve the same end when it comes to providing affordability for low income or no income people.

Components that Lee and Woolsey say the bill must have in order to meet their concerns are:

Affordability protections: Meaning, the "legislation must protect lower and middle-income individuals by ensuring that subsidies make coverage affordable and that Medicaid patients have access to primary care physicians."

Tighter market regulation: Meaning, "New regulations must keep premiums reasonable and end abusive practices. Insurance companies should no longer be exempt from anti-trust laws and any premium increases must be reviewed before they take effect."

Employer mandates: Meaning, "If individuals are required to buy insurance, employers should be required to provide it."

Tax surcharges: Meaning, "Health care reform should be financed by tax surcharges on the wealthy not excise taxes on health insurance plans offered to many workers and union members."

The painstaking fight for maximum health care affordability is clearly not over.