WASHINGTON (CN) - Lawmakers on Tuesday rejected amendments that would add a public option to the health care bill now before the Senate Finance Committee. Democratic Chairman Max Baucus voted against the amendments, saying they put the rest of the bill in jeopardy. "I can count," Baucus, D-Mont., said before voting. Baucus said his job is to pass a bill out of committee that will win 60 votes in the Senate.
He called the health-care bill before the committee a foundation for health-care reform, but said he thinks the public option will impede the bill.
"Rome was not built in a day," he said, suggesting that a public option will have to wait until later.
The amendment that lost first, was introduced by West Virginia Democrat Rockefeller, and lost 15-8. The second amendment was introduced by New York Democrat Charles Schumer, and lost 13-10, winning two additional Democratic votes.
After debating the bill most of last week, today marks the first time in 15 years that the committee has taken five days to mark up a bill.
"We are clearly giving this bill the due consideration it deserves," Baucus said.
So far, the committee has addressed just more than 60 of the 564 amendments proposed.
Republicans argued that a public option would eliminate competition by outcompeting private insurers, and said the option would ultimately become a single-payer plan, morphing into another financial burden on the government.
Democrats argued that a public option would give choice to consumers, and that it would stimulate competition in a currently uncompetitive market. They also proposed it as a way of providing reasonably priced insurance in the midst of skyrocketing prices, and maintained the plan would pay for itself.
Rockefeller, a Democrat, introduced his amendment to add what has widely been called a public option to the health-care bill. He described it as a free-market plan, even as a "Republican plan," saying the federal government won't be able to set rates or premiums, and that it will be run by a non-profit group.
After Rockefeller's proposal was voted down, Schumer did not introduce his amendment in very much detail, and there was little additional debate before his amendment was put to a vote.
This was likely because the debate centered around a public option in general, and less about the specifics of the amendments.
"Seventy percent of the American people want this," Rockefeller said of the public option.
According to a recently published New York Times report, 65 percent of Americans would support a government-administered health insurance plan.
Running way over his allotted time, Rockefeller repeated many times that a public option would be optional. "Nobody has to do this." He predicted that only 5 percent of Americans will decide to adopt the plan, at least for now.
But Arizona Republican Jon Kyl said the public plan wouldn't be optional, arguing that employers would force their employees onto the cheaper public plan.
Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, called the public plan "a slow walk towards government controlled, single-payer healthcare," mirroring long-held republican concerns that "a government-run plan will ultimately run private insurers out of business," saying the government will regulate the market to favor the plan, putting private companies at a disadvantage.
