I’ve been calling Senate Finance Committee member Sen. Maria Cantwell’s office since Wednesday morning after Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), the Finance Committe chair, unveiled his (sans public option) health care plan.
I left the following question on her spokeswoman’s voice mail: Given Sen. Cantwell’s bold statements on health care reform (Here: Yea on the public option and Here: Tax the rich), what does she think about Baucus’ compromise proposal, which subs in a health co-op option for the public option?
(In co-ops, like Group Health, health care consumers pool their money to own the health care provider themselves, which creates incentives for cost-effective care since the members themselves pay for their coverage.)
Sen. Cantwell’s office has not called back, but The Olympian ran an article today that quotes her as follows:
“I wouldn’t vote for a bill that doesn’t have Medicare reform and the public option,” Cantwell said in a telephone interview. “What would I tell the people in Washington state?” … “The public plan would be cheaper than subsidies for the insurance companies”
Sen. Cantwell will certainly charm her liberal base by voting ‘No’, but the second question I asked her spokeswoman was this: Does the senator have any game plan to put the public option back on the table?
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