H.R. 191: To amend the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to establish a public health insurance option (GovTrack.us)

Sponsor:	Rep. Lynn Woolsey [D-CA6]show cosponsors (46) Cosponsors: Gary Ackerman [D-NY5] Tammy Baldwin [D-WI2] Michael Capuano [D-MA8] Steve Cohen [D-TN9] John Conyers [D-MI14] Rosa DeLauro [D-CT3] Donna Edwards [D-MD4] Keith Ellison [D-MN5] Eliot Engel [D-NY17] Sam Farr [D-CA17] Chaka Fattah [D-PA2] Bob Filner [D-CA51] Barney Frank [D-MA4] John Garamendi [D-CA10] Raul Grijalva [D-AZ7] Luis Gutiérrez [D-IL4] Alcee Hastings [D-FL23] Brian Higgins [D-NY27] Maurice Hinchey [D-NY22] Mazie Hirono [D-HI2] Rush Holt [D-NJ12] Michael Honda [D-CA15] Sheila Jackson-Lee [D-TX18] Henry Johnson [D-GA4] Barbara Lee [D-CA9] Zoe Lofgren [D-CA16] Ben Luján [D-NM3] Doris Matsui [D-CA5] George Miller [D-CA7] Gwen Moore [D-WI4] Christopher Murphy [D-CT5] Jerrold Nadler [D-NY8] John Olver [D-MA1] Chellie Pingree [D-ME1] Laura Richardson [D-CA37] Steven Rothman [D-NJ9] Timothy Ryan [D-OH17] John Sarbanes [D-MD3] Janice Schakowsky [D-IL9] Robert Scott [D-VA3] Louise Slaughter [D-NY28] Fortney Stark [D-CA13] Michael Thompson [D-CA1] Paul Tonko [D-NY21] Niki Tsongas [D-MA5] Anthony Weiner [D-NY9]
Text:	The text of this legislation is not yet available on GovTrack. It may not have been made available by the Government Printing Office yet.
Status:	Introduced Jan 5, 2011 Referred to Committee View Committee Assignments Reported by Committee ... House Vote ... Senate Vote ... Signed by President ... This bill is in the first step in the legislative process. Introduced bills and resolutions first go to committees that deliberate, investigate, and revise them before they go to general debate. The majority of bills and resolutions never make it out of committee. [Last Updated: Jan 7, 2011 6:19AM]
Last Action:	Jan 5, 2011: Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Current Status

Pelosi: Public option will not be in health bill despite liberal efforts to revive it - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room

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By Jordan Fabian

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Friday that the public health insurance option will not be included in a package of fixes to healthcare reform legislation.

Pelosi's comments throw a wrench into liberal efforts to reintroduce it to the bill. She shut the door on a possible pathway opened by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who said earlier on Friday that he would "aggressively" push senators to vote for the plan if the House included it in the fixes.

"We had it, we wanted it ... it's not in the reconciliation," Pelosi said at her weekly press briefing. "It isn't in there because [the Senate doesn't] have the votes to have it in there."
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Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review: The Neutered Public Option—Where’s the Rage?

by Bob Laszewski

The public option contained in the House Democratic health care bill is hardly more than a neutered version of the “robust” public option one House Democrat after another said was a minimum requirement to keep their vote on health care reform. After threatening for months to fall on their swords if they didn’t get the “robust Medicare-like” version, there was nothing but enthusiastic support for the neutered version from almost all Democrats when the bill was unveiled last week.

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Analysis: Public Option Might Play Only Minor Role In Changing Health Care - Kaiser Health News

By Eric Pianin, Mary Agnes Carey and Julie Appleby, KHN Staff Writers

For all the controversy over a government-run insurance option, the program outlined in health overhaul legislation likely would play a minuscule role in efforts to expand health care coverage, according to many health care experts and lawmakers.

Of the 30 million Americans likely to purchase insurance through exchanges created by the legislation, only six million -- or one fifth -- would enroll in a public insurance plan, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis of the House bill. Viewing it another way, the six million using the public option would amount to only two percent of the 282 million Americans under the age of 65 who are projected to have health insurance by 2019, when the legislation is fully implemented.
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Many Details Still Bedevil Democrats In Health Reform Bills - Kaiser Health News

It was the usual partisan squabbling on the Sunday talk shows. Democrats are braced for a significant week ahead, ironing out significant differences in various health reform bills. Kaiser Health News provides this roundup:
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Lieberman Would Choose No Health Care Reform -- Political Wire

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), interviewed on Face the Nation, said that America would be better off with no health care reform bill instead of one that includes a government-run public health insurance option.

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Health Business Blog - Fears of the public option are overblown

by David E. Williams

Revival of the so-called public option in health reform legislation has big business in a big tizzy. I listened in on a Business Roundtable briefing yesterday where two talking points were hammered on repeatedly:

* The public plan will result in cost shifting to the private market, raising costs for businesses that provide insurance
* The public plan will stifle innovation (e.g., in new treatments) by focusing on cost above all else

I’m slightly puzzled about why the Roundtable (which represents large businesses) feels so strongly about this. First, it is far from inevitable that a public plan would result in cost shifting. Second, the innovation argument is at best a mixed bag. Maybe a public plan would reduce the introduction of costly new technologies (and maybe not). But it might bring innovations in another area where they’re needed: cost control.

Big employers assume that the public option would undercut commercial premiums. Let’s examine that notion a bit.

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Audio: Health On The Hill - House Health Bill Explained - Kaiser Health News

KHN's Mary Agnes Carey discusses the latest health reform proposal unveiled today by House Democratic leaders.

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Most liberals can live with compromises - Patrick O'Connor - POLITICO.com

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By PATRICK O'CONNOR

Speaker Nancy Pelosi will unveil a bill Thursday that falls short of the liberal vision of a public option — and the liberals, so far and somewhat surprisingly, are going along with that.

After months of public hand-wringing and strident proclamations in support of the strongest possible government-run health coverage, liberal Democrats are bowing to the reality that party leaders don’t have the votes.

So Pelosi will unveil a bill that creates a public option but one that would allow doctors and hospitals to negotiate rates with the government. Liberals wanted a bill tethered to Medicare rates.

In the end, most liberal lawmakers were willing to stand down in this months-long fight because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced earlier this week that he would seek to include a public option in the Senate bill.
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House Democrats Prepare For Thursday Release Of Health Bill - Kaiser Health News

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The Associated Press: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is making plans to release on Thursday morning the House version of sweeping health reform legislation, depending on the outcome of a Wednesday afternoon meeting with House leaders. "The rollout would cap months of arduous negotiations to bridge differences between liberal and moderate Democrats and blend health care overhaul bills passed by three separate committees over the summer."
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Wyden's Choice--And Yours | The New Republic

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By Suzy Khimm October 27, 2009 | 9:17 pm

What good can the public option do if not enough people can access it? That’s the question that Senator Ron Wyden has been raising a lot lately. And he did it again this morning, at TNR's health care reform event. It's part of his campaign to pass what he's called the "free choice" amendment, which would allow people with access to employer-sponsored insurance to reject those plans, redirect their employer contributions, and buy coverage instead through the new insurance exchanges.

The odds are still against the amendment's passage. But Wyden's crusade has been generating media attention and, more recently, generating some enthusiasm on the left--where Wyden has had some trouble over the last year. Why the sudden surge of interest?
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View C-SPAN Video of The New Republic Magazine Health Care Forum

Read Jonathan Cohen's Review of Nancy-Anne DeParle's keynote address

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Opting out: Not as simple as it looks - Darrell West - POLITICO.com

By DARRELL WEST

"Opt-out” has become the most powerful phrase in the health care debate, thanks to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s decision to include it in Senate legislation. When elected officials were searching for votes last week in favor of a filibuster-proof public option and appeared to come up short, Democratic Sens. Tom Carper of Delaware and Chuck Schumer of New York promoted the novel idea of a state-level “opt-out.” If particular jurisdictions do not like a public option, they simply can exit the government health insurance system for uninsured residents.
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Divided Conquerers - Huddle 24/7 - POLITICO.com

By: GLENN THRUSH

Liberals heartened by Harry Reid’s inclusion of the public option in his health reform bill were halted in mid-victory lap Tuesday by the realization that a handful of key Senate centrists are still resistant to their plans.
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Defections have some Democrats casting about for Plan B - Carrie Budoff Brown - POLITICO.com

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By CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s appeals for party unity landed with a thud Tuesday with the very group he needs for his public-option push to pay off: centrists who hold the key to health reform.

And not just any centrists but one who makes liberals see red: Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), who said Tuesday that he’d back a GOP attempt to block the bill from moving to final passage.

Lieberman’s comments dealt a major setback to Reid’s push to pass a bill with a public insurance option, so much so that other Senate Democrats — notably Delaware Sen. Tom Carper — were already sketching out a Plan B to get the votes, most likely through a more watered-down version of the public option.
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Justin Gardner - Political Pulse – Lieberman, Moderate Dems Oppose Public Option - True/Slant

By Justin Gardner Well, at least the opt out version.

Here’s Joe…

“We’re trying to do too much at once,” Lieberman said. “To put this government-created insurance company on top of everything else is just asking for trouble for the taxpayers, for the premium payers and for the national debt. I don’t think we need it now.”

And guess what? They don’t have the votes in the House either…

The House Dem leadership has conducted its preliminary whip count and has tallied up less than 200 likely Yes votes in support of a health care reform bill with a robust public option, well short of the 218 needed for passage, according to an internal whip count document I’ve obtained.

The document — compiled by the office of House leader James Clyburn — was distributed privately at a meeting between Clyburn and House progressives today where the fate of the public option was the subject of some contentious debate, with liberals demanding that House leaders push harder to win over votes.

Clyburn spokesperson Kristie Greco would only say: “We currently do not have the votes for a robust public option.”

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Elder Women Rap on Healthcare Reform

Pelosi calls an emergency meeting on push for ‘robust’ public option - TheHill.com

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By Jared Allen

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is scrambling to push back the notion she lacks the votes for a “robust” public option.

Pelosi (D-Calif.) called an emergency meeting of her caucus Friday morning to declare that she has not abandoned the push for including that provision in a healthcare bill.
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