Shocker! The House reform bill with a robust public option is better in almost every way than anything floating around in the Senate.
On Tuesday, House Democratic leaders received a new cost estimate of $871 billion from congressional budget umpires who measured a robust version of a so-called public option for health insurance, according to a Democratic aide. [...]
The House bill with the strong public plan would extend coverage to 96 percent of uninsured Americans and significantly reduce budget deficits.
I'll be very interested to see the final scoring of this bill. And I'll be very interested to see how the so-called "fiscally responsible" Blue Dogs react to a bill that's cheaper, that covers more people and that reduces the deficit.
Let's do the public option check list:
-Covers more Americans. Check.
-Reduces the deficit. Check.
-Reduces the cost of reform. Check.
-Offers choice and competition. Check.
-Popular with a clear majority of Americans. Check.
So what's the problem, senators?
Adding... It looks like Speaker Pelosi is preparing to add the robust public option into the final House bill. "Robust" meaning a public option that pays Medicare rates plus five percent. And they're very close to having the votes in the House to pass it. By the way, according to TPM, as opposed to the AP, the House bill would be deficit neutral.