Controversial "public option" back in US Senate's health bill

Oct 26, 2009, 20:34 GMT

Washington - A highly disputed government-run insurance option has been placed back into health reform legislation making its way through the US Senate, the top Democrat in the chamber announced Monday.

But in a new compromise, Senator Harry Reid said states could choose whether or not they wanted to join the so-called 'public option,' which has long been trumpeted by left-leaning Democrats but is strongly opposed by conservative Republicans.

Reid was announcing the results of weeks of closed-door meetings between leading Democratic senators and the White House, aimed at melding two rival versions of the health reforms that were approved by the Senate's health and finance committees.

'I feel good about the consensus that was reached,' Reid, the Senate majority leader, told reporters. 'The best way to move forward is with a public option with the opt-out provision for states.'

The compromise has the support of US President Barack Obama and could reach the Senate floor later this week. But the inclusion of a public option, even with the 'opt-out' for states, could doom the already-slim chances that any conservative lawmakers will back the wider health care overhaul bill.

Reid acknowledged his latest compromise did not have the support of Senator Olympia Snowe, the lone Republican who backed a health- care bill approved by the Senate Finance Committee this month. That committee's bill did not include a government-run insurer, leading many pundits to declare the public option dead.

Democrats argue a public insurance option is necessary to force the largely private health insurance industry to lower skyrocketing costs. Republicans consider it a slippery-slope towards a government takeover that could force private insurers out of business.

The wider health reform legislation is designed to bend the cost- curve in the world's most expensive health care system and extend insurance to some of the 46 million Americans that currently have no health coverage.