Baucus Unveils “Bipartisan” Health Plan

Senator Max Baucus, the Democrat in charge of the Senate Finance Committee, has released what he calls a “bipartisan” health care bill. The bill would cost $856 billion over 10 years, and would use health care “co-ops” instead of the full fledged “public option” supported by the radical-liberals in Congress.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/16/AR2009091601151.html?hpid=topnews

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus unveiled an $856 billion health-care reform plan Wednesday that would require nearly all Americans to carry health insurance while barring insurance companies from discriminating against people based on their health status or denying coverage because of preexisting conditions.

The plan does not call for a government-run insurance option, as advocated by President Obama and most Democrats, but would set up a system of nonprofit consumer-owned cooperatives to compete with private insurers -- a provision intended to appeal to Republicans who have railed against the "public option" in recent weeks.

You can read the bill here.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/documents/americas_healthy_future_act_of_2009_091609.pdf

So what has Baucus managed to produce here? Is it an effective bill that can win the support of those on both sides of the aisle? No, it is literally a bill that nobody likes. At all.


Though Baucus claims the bill is bipartisan, he hasn’t gotten a single Republican to endorse the bill… not even the ones on the Committee who helped DRAFT it.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/healthcare/la-na-healthcare-congress16-2009sep16,0,7857187.story

The Democrats don’t like it, mostly because it lacks the public option… though some do complain about it “costing families too much.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125303845553412855.html#mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_news

Essentially, Baucus labored long and hard to come up with a “compromise” bill that has absolutely no chance of passing. The liberals won’t support it because it doesn’t contain the coveted “public option,” and the Republicans won’t support it because it doesn’t implement any of the many private-sector reforms that would be highly effective and wouldn’t cost the federal government a dime.

So this much ballyhooed plan will likely die a rather quick death, championed by the more liberal members of Baucus’ own party.