Dodd: “We are going to get the public option”

Standing alongside Vice President Joe Biden and 4th District Congressman Jim Himes (D-CT), Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) yesterday told a crowd of more than 400 supporters and guests how crucial the recovery program and health care reform are to the economy, then added emphatically: “We are going to get the public option” and received an extended, cheering ovation.

I can tell you because I was there.

The occasion was an event, featuring the Vice President, chosen to highlight transportation infrastructure investments flowing from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, at a site adjacent to a reconstruction project on Connecticut’s Merritt Parkway near Exit 46 in Fairfield.

Dodd’s remarks came as he and other Senate leaders prepare for expected health care bill merger sessions. That is assuming that the bill passed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee — which has a public option — is to be merged with one yet-to-be-passed by the Finance Committee — which does not. A vote in the Finance Committee has reportedly been delayed again.

Reports keep surfacing that Finance chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) may not have the votes to pass his deeply flawed bill, which doesn’t control insurance costs, out of his committee.

If and when the Finance Committee ever does report their health bill (I won’t call it ‘reform’), the merger sessions will involve Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and the White House, as well as Senator Baucus and leaders on the Senate HELP Committee. Senate sources report that both Senator Dodd, who as acting chairman during Sen. Ted Kennedy’s illness, led the health care reform effort in committee, and current HELP chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) will be involved in the merger sessions.

Dodd and Harkin, those sources say, both intend to press for inclusion of the public insurance option plan in the merged and final versions of the Senate bill. Committee staff note national polls showing that the American people want the option of a public insurance plan, and that leading physicians’ groups agree. The public option included in the HELP Committee’s reform bill gives people choices, they note, creates a nationally portable program and puts people ahead of profits.

At a recent gathering of online writers and local bloggers in Connecticut, I had an opportunity to discuss the health care legislative process with Senator Chris Dodd. Specifically, I raised the idea, originally proposed by David Waldman, to name the public option for Ted Kennedy.

After a lively conversation in which he said “that’s a good idea” he went on to discuss some interesting process and jurisdictional points relating to the health care legislation in advance of the expected bill-merging sessions.

Thanks to ctblogger for the video.

At 3:48 of the clip Dodd anticipates some of the factors that may play out in those Senate bill-merging sessions:

“The Committee I was chairing [HELP] has much more jurisdiction over health care than the Finance Committee. Now, they have the jurisdiction over arguably the difficult parts, dealing with Medicare, Medicaid and (inaudible) and tax policy; but all of the prevention, all of the quality, all of the workforce issues and the coverage questions were legitimate matters of jurisdiction of the HELP Committee.”

These jurisdictional arguments will be one of many that, Senate sources say, Dodd and Harkin will use to press for the public option as well as other crucial components from the HELP Committee bill in the merged Senate version. If they succeed we will have a much better final bill.

You can help them succeed. Thank Senators Dodd and Harkin and tell them you support their efforts to put the public option in the merged Senate health care bill.

Call Senator Chris Dodd at (202) 224-2823 and
Call Senator Tom Harkin at (202) 224-3254

And join in Wednesday and call your two senators and your representative at 1-877-323-5246 as the AFL-CIO helps lead a National Call-In Day for health care reform.