Senate panel turns aside public option

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- The Senate Finance Committee defeated two amendments Tuesday that would have created a government-run option in an overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system.

The panel rejected amendments offered by Sens. John D. Rockefeller IV, D-W.Va., and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who both said a public option was the best way to give consumers an affordable choice in health insurance and keep private insurance companies in check, The Washington Post reported.

"We are going to get at this, and at this, and at this, until we succeed, because we believe in it so strongly," Schumer said in offering his amendment.

Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said he omitted the public option because he did not believe it had enough support in the Senate to make it all the way to President Barack Obama, The Hill reported. His bill calls for federally chartered, not-for-profit, member-owned healthcare cooperatives as an alternative to traditional private insurers.

"My job is to get a bill that can get 60 votes," he said. "I can count."

Rockefeller's amendment was rejected on an 8-15 vote, and Schumer's amendment was nixed on a 13-10 vote tally.

Rockefeller's provision would have authorized a more public plan that tied doctors' reimbursement rates to Medicare. Schumer's plan did not link doctor reimbursement rates to Medicare.

The contentious public option is in all three versions of healthcare reform in the House and in one Senate bill.