Democrats Still Have Questions, Concerns Amidst Health Compromise

Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) “on Wednesday expressed apprehension about the public option compromise stuck late Tuesday,” The Hill reports.

Feingold told reporters he was concerned that stripping healthcare reform legislation of the government-run public health insurance option could result in a giveaway of federal dollars to private insurers.

“I don’t want to create a system where creating a new alternative in the private industry area simply takes public subsidies and tax payer dollars and then finances profits for the insurance industry,” he said. “And I think that can be avoided.”

He added “I think the final bill may well avoid that but that’s an area of concern…I still think we should have a public option.”

But is there even an actual deal in place?  A separate Hill article reports that “two centrist Democrats at the center of the Senate’s tense healthcare reform negotiations insisted that there has been no compromise deal on the legislation despite Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) pronouncements.”

“There’s no specific compromise. There were discussions,” Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) said at a press conference Wednesday.

Reid announced Monday night that a working group of five liberal Democrats and give centrist Democrats had reached a “broad agreement” on how to bridge an intraparty divide on healthcare reform — and particularly on whether to create a government-run public option insurance program. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is currently scoring the new provisions to determine their costs.

One thing that has been consistently pointed out by moderate and progressive Democrats is that they want to see the CBO score of these new proposals before making any final decisions.

As has been the case throughout this health reform process, the non-partisan budget office may well determine if the bill is able to move forward quickly or be further delayed.

(credit image – associated press)