The Wyden Admendment

So it turns out Max Baucus rejected my favorite amendment last night. I've talked about the Free Choice Act before, but in short it would offer more individuals a choice between healthcare providers. Apparently it didn't have the support of labor unions and big business, which means Max Baucus can't support it. His excuse was that it did not have a CBO report, so he threw it out... it wasn't even voted on.

Rightfully so Senator Wyden was clearly upset he told his colleagues "We have stripped this bill of choice and competition" that statement could not be more accurate. With no public option, and no real choice the finance bill is projected to only cover around 29 million additional people. Not only would a public option offer more people the opportunity to purchase health care, it would also lower the costs for everyone else (more people in the system cheaper for everyone.) But come on I sound like a broken record, I've said all this before.

Wyden's amendment would have offered an additional 175 million people the option to choose their own health plan, now they will literally be stuck with whatever their employer provides or whatever their union could lobby for. Instead of having more competition, insurance companies will have no motivation to improve coverage and lower costs. Like I've said before the status quo is a sinking ship. So after three months, the Finance bill has ended up to be just that, the status quo.

TLH