October 28th, 2009

Reports Kaiser Health News:

House Democratic leaders are planning to unveil their version of the health care overhaul that will include a more tempered public insurance plan in which the federal government would negotiate prices with doctors and hospitals, Roll Call reports. No official announcements have been made, and many liberals continued to push for their more “robust” version of the plan that would let the government set prices, rather than negotiating. However, some on the left, like Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., a long time single-payer advocate, appears to favor moving forward – with or without the robust version of the plan (Newmyer, 10/28).

Meanwhile, Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the House majority leader, applauded his Senate counterpart for including any version of the public plan in his bill, the Associated Press reports. Hoyer said Tuesday that Reid’s inclusion of the provision may not change the politics in the House, but that it could influence whether the final legislation includes the public plan. He also said he hoped some moderate House Democrats, who want to avoid passing a bill that wouldn’t clear the more conservative Senate, may view Reid’s decision as political cover (Werner, 10/27).

Hoyer “said Tuesday that Democratic leaders want to bring their massive health care overhaul legislation to the floor next week, if they can line up a majority behind a single ‘public option’ proposal,” CQ Politics reports.

Read more at Kaiser.