Senate panel: no public option

**ChamberedRound** · September 29th, 2009, 04:00 PM

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090929/...hcare_option_1

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday easily rejected the inclusion of a government-run "public" insurance option, backed by President Barack Obama, in its sweeping healthcare reform bill.

The panel voted 16-8 against a government-run insurance plan in the first of several battles expected in Congress over the issue, one of the most contentious in the raging U.S. debate over healthcare reform.

(Writing by John Whitesides)

**andrewjs18** · September 29th, 2009, 04:04 PM

Originally Posted by ChamberedRound

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090929/...hcare_option_1

good start...

**adymond** · September 29th, 2009, 04:18 PM

I wonder how this will factor into the $25,000 fine or 1 year in prison punishment for not carrying health insurance.

**ChamberedRound** · September 29th, 2009, 04:26 PM

Originally Posted by adymond

I wonder how this will factor into the $25,000 fine or 1 year in prison punishment for not carrying health insurance.

Is that also in the Senate bill, or the corresponding House bill? Either way, if the Senate Finance committee is saying "no public option", then anything related to that would have to be removed in the Senate bill. Furthermore, I'd like to think that if a Senate committee says "No" to a public option, the whole Senate will likewise say "No" to any House bill which includes one.

In any event, this is a good first step which may help us to get real reform, instead of a complete paradigm shift to a socialist model that Obama is trying to call "reform".