Landrieu, speaking today at the Domenici Public Policy Conference at NMSU. (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
Landrieu in Las Cruces: ‘… I believe that we should do nothing that would undermine the private insurance market.’
In an interview in Las Cruces earlier today, a key U.S. senator in the health-care reform debate reaffirmed her opposition to including a public option in a reform bill.
But Democrat Mary Landrieu of Louisiana said she thinks the Senate can get 60 votes in support of a bill that will accomplish the president’s goals without a public option.
Landrieu said there would be “very limited opportunity, if any, for me to support a public option.”
“The reason is because I believe that we should do nothing that would undermine the private insurance market,” Landrieu said.
The senator made the remarks during an interview following a speech she gave about energy policy at the Domenici Public Policy Conference at New Mexico State University.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., introduced a bill Wednesday that does not include a public option in its reform proposals. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., called the Baucus bill “a big step forward” but said he will try to get a public option added to it.
Bingaman, as a member of the bipartisan “Gang of Six” trying to negotiate a compromise on health care reform, is a key proponent of public option. He has said if a compromise doesn’t emerge he will help push a reform bill through the so-called budget reconciliation process, a procedural move that would require a simple majority vote instead of the usual 60.
For the time being, however, the Baucus proposal has Senate Democrats trying to figure out how to get 60 votes to pass a reform bill through the usual process.
Landrieu has been named by the Washington Independent as one of 14 senators “on the fence” in the debate over health care reform. In the past, she has said she prefers a “private, market-based approach” to reform and says she “would like to cover everyone — that would be the moral thing to do — but it would be immoral to bankrupt the country while doing so.”
Landrieu said today that she believes people who currently have insurance generally like what they have and don’t want their insurance overrun by a public system. But she said that’s exactly what will happen if policymakers aren’t careful in the reform they approve.
Reconciliation won’t be necessary
As one of the key senators whose support is being sought by those who want 60 votes, Landrieu said she doesn’t think reconciliation will be necessary.
“I think we can build a 60-plus vote,” she said.
Although Landrieu’s opposition to public option puts her at odds with many of her Democratic colleagues, including Bingaman, Landrieu said she won’t change her position, but added that she is “not trying to stop health care reform.”
“The current system is not sustainable,” she said in acknowledging the need for reform.
But Landrieu said she believes the system can be reformed to meet the president’s goals — a ban on refusing coverage of pre-existing positions, reform of the private insurance system and cutting costs from public insurance programs — without a public option.