Senate votes bought and paid for by health insurance co

Senate votes bought and paid for by health insurance companies

By: David Phillips

Last week the Senate finance committee voted down two separate amendments to add a public health care option to the health care bill championed by Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) and the lobbyists who represent the healthcare industry. In fact Baucus himself voted no on both amendments.

There were two amendments and two separate votes yesterday to include the public health care option in the final Bill, one amendment by Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) which had five democrats vote no and the other amendment was from Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) who saw three democrats vote no.

Maybe the $8 million dollars that Baucus has received from the health care industry since he entered congress had something to do with his pro insurance company Bill that Baucus crafted and his two votes yesterday against a public health care option in the Senate finance committee in which he chairs..

But to be fair to Baucus, four other democrats on the Senate finance committee also voted against the two amendments to include a public option.

In total five democrats voted against the two amendments that would have added a public option for health care into the Senate finance committee’s Bill before it eventually goes to the Senate floor for a full vote.

Along with Baucus’s $8 million from the health care industry, Senator’s Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) received $4 million form the health care industry, Kent Conrad (D-ND) received $3 million from the health care industry, Bill Nelson (D-FL) received $2.5 million and Tom Carper (D-DE) received $1.5 million from the health care industry. These figures were compiled by Intershame.com using the figures from the website Opensecrets.org which tracks campaign contributions for all present and past Senators by industry and company.

So it should be no surprise that they voted in favor of insurance companies and against what is best for all American’s.

It is clear that Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will have to use the reconciliation process down the road to get a public health care option included. Senator Reid has stated several time in the last few weeks that he will use reconciliation if that is his only recourse.

The American public in a NY Times/CBS poll by a margin of 65% overwhelmingly support the public option.

The end game for a public health care option seems to have always been rooted in reconciliation, and in the coming weeks we shall see if Senator Reid supports the American public with a viable public option or if he supports the Insurance companies as those who voted yesterday have shown.