Health Scorecard: Insurance Industry 2, Public Option 0, Game Still On

The health insurance industry came under withering fire in the Senate Finance Committee, but it was all just a prelude to victory. Republicans and conservative Democrats defeated two different versions of a public health insurance plan after a four-hour debate that pretty much proved these twains shall never meet.

Democrat Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia said insurance companies are "getting away with banditry, and they revel in it." Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa countered that "the government is not a fair competitor; it's a predator."

So many villains, so much villainy. At this point, I'm not sure I want insurance from the government or the private sector. Not that I have a choice. (Joke. Sort of.)

Grassley raised the specter of employers ending their insurance coverage and forcing people wholesale into a public plan (actually they'd be forced into a new exchange or marketplace, which would offer many private plans and possibly one plan administered by the government.) Democrat John Kerry of Massachusetts categorically stated that a public option, paid for by premiums, would not be an entitlement -- and two minutes later Republican John Cornyn of Texas said we shouldn't be creating another entitlement.

As Kerry said right before that exchange, "People are sort of talking past each other a little bit here."

So, what happens now?

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions already has passed a bill that contains a public option. Ten of 13 Democrats on Finance voted Tuesday for a version of the public option offered by Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York. Chairman Max Baucus of Montana said he supports the concept -- he's just worried about getting to 60 votes on the floor.

Richard Kirsch, national campaign director for a pro-public-option coalition called Health Care for America Now, said it's clear that "a big majority of Democrats" support the public option and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid should take that into consideration when he decides what to bring to the floor. If he leaves it out, it will be offered as an amendment on the floor.

The House probably will include a public option in its bill, and anything could happen in the House-Senate conference committee. Still, the public option remains a long shot.

Schumer and Rockefeller said they would pursue a compromise that can get 60 votes. "The public option is on the march," Rockefeller said. Pledged Schumer: "We are going to keep at this and at this and at this until we succeed."

It might be appropriate here to note that without Schumer, the public option wouldn't even be a long shot. As chairman of his party's Senate campaign committee, he was instrumental in Democrats winning six seats and recapturing control of the chamber in 2006. He stayed for 2008 and delivered another eight seats, bringing Democrats right to the doorstep of 60. And that's why this debate is still alive.