Healthcare

The Wyden Amendment Lives

If you recall, the Wyden "free choice" amendment was shitcanned in the Finance Committee -- Baucus didn't allow it to come up for a vote. But it looks like Baucus and the White House might've cut a deal with Wyden to secure his vote on the Finance bill. Basically, Wyden might get a version of his free choice amendment inserted into the Finance/HELP hybrid bill. More from Ezra Klein.

Just a reminder: the Wyden amendment is possibly the only chance for expanding accessibility to the public option and the healthcare exchanges. In other words, as it stands now, this is the only way Americans with employer-based insurance will have access to the public option. And it would go a long way towards helping to define the "robust" in the phrase "robust public option."