In a lengthy morning debate, the Senate Finance Committee voted down an amendment proposed by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., that would have created a public option in the America’s Healthy Futures Act of 2009, sponsored by Committee Chair Max Baucus, D-Mont.

The amendment failed 15-8 . The Senate Finance Committee started Sept. 22 marking up the bill and creating amendments to add to the bill. Rockefeller’s amendment, the Consumer Choice Health Plan, would have created a government-managed health insurance plan. Rockefeller refrained from calling it a public plan, saying the plan supports the free-market.

“I don’t call it the public option,” stated Rockefeller. “I don’t see any reason why we don’t do this. I cannot understand why we wouldn’t do this. I think Adam Smith would have cooked up this amendment if I hadn’t.”

“Yes, it is started by the federal government and it has an administrator, but the administrator cannot have anything to do with what goes on – cannot set any rates, premiums, adjust up or adjust down. And it’s optional; optional to the extent that most people say that less than 5 percent of people will avail themselves of this plan”

It was the hope of Rockefeller that the Consumer Choice Health Plan would pressure the health insurance industry to lower their premiums.

“This one little consumer choice plan will cause people in the health insurance industry to reconsider the premiums they’re doing because there is the competition,” said Rockefeller. “Because of consolidation there is not now genuine competition. They’re getting away with banditry. I feel so strongly about it because it makes so much sense.”

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, raised questions about creating another massive government entity when other government programs are teetering towards collapse.

“At a time when major government programs, like Medicare and Medicaid, are already on the path to fiscal insolvency, creating a brand new government program will not only worsen our long-term financial outlook, but also negatively American families that enjoy the private coverage of their choice,” said Hatch.

Ultimately, Hatch believed that the Rockefeller public option amendment would slide the U.S. into a single-payer, universal health care system. Such a system, Hatch says, will take away true choice.

“The goal of health care reform was to make it more affordable,” explained Hatch. “I believe this new government plan is nothing more than a Trojan Horse for a single-payer system. Washington-run programs undermine market-based competition, improve their ability to impose price controls, and shift costs to other purchasers.”Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., said that calling the Rockefeller amendment a government-run plan is misleading.

“I have heard already that the public plan is government-run insurance,” said Menendez. “To me that is absurd and everyone knows it. It will not be government-run; it will be independent, it will be self-financed, it must be self-sustaining. That to me is not a government-runs insurance program.”

The public option would help make the insurance market more competitive, something that Menendez says doesn’t exist now.

“Health insurance is probably one of the least competitive businesses in America,” stated Menendez. “Health insurance markets are almost entirely local. 94 percent of insurance markets in the United States are now highly concentrated.”

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., expressed his displeasure at a measure inside the Rockefeller amendment that mandates that doctors opt-in to the public option in order to participate in the Medicare program. The amendment requires that doctors who wish to participate in Medicare also participate in the public option for a two-year period, from 2013 to 2014.

“Even though it’s not required for (doctors) to participate, if they want to participate in Medicare they have to participate in this program under the amendment by Sen. Rockefeller,” said Ensign. “If Sen. Rockefeller’s amendment was adopted, about a third of the market would go to this public option. If you’re going to practice medicine, you’re going to have to take this.”

Debate continues on a similar amendment sponsored by Sen Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.  to the America’s Healthy Futures Act of 2009. You can read the whole bill here (WV Watchdog, “Document Dump: America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009″) or read the list of amendments here (WV Watchdog, “Document Dump: Modifications to the America’s Healthy Futures Act”).

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