Health care insurance amendment rejected

The U.S. Senate Finance Committee this afternoon rejected the first of a couple of health care overhaul amendments which would create a so-called public option -- a government-run plan to provide an insurance plan to compete with private insurers and keep costs down.

Even though some polls have shown strong support for the public option, critics have argued that it will hurt private insurers and is a step toward socialized medicine. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, offered the amendment, which was defeated with 15 committee members voting against it, including five Democrats, chairman Max Baucus of Montana among them.

A second, more modest proposal for a public option was also defeated -- 13-10.

Debbie Stabenow, of Michigan, was among the eight members -- all Democrats -- voting in favor of the public option both times. In remarks to the committee, she praised it as a way to force insurers to keep premiums -- and profits -- low and make insurance more affordable.

"This is part of the way we make sure that the reforms in the bill work," she said.

Baucus and some other moderate Democrats voted against the amendment, worried that a controversial move toward a government plan would hurt the overall reform bill's chances of passage on the Senate floor. The House version includes the public option -- and President Barack Obama has said he supports it, though the White House does not want inclusion of the public option to block the rest of the reform bill.

Said Baucus, "My first job is to get this bill across the finish line. ... There's a lot in this bill that will control costs."