Health-care battle to heat up today in the Senate

WASHINGTON — A fierce debate is expected today as members of the Senate Finance Committee reconvene talks on a huge health-care overhaul bill and take up an amendment that would create a government-runinsurance plan.

Members of the panel met most of last week in an effort to advance Chairman Max Baucus' 10-year, nearly $900 billion bill.

But they adjourned Friday without addressing what promises to be one of the most controversial amendments, the so-called "public option" favored by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., who plans to bring up the amendment today.

The bill offered by Baucus, D-Mont., leaves out a public insurance option, which is favored by many liberals, and instead would set up nonprofit insurance cooperatives.

The case for a government option is based on concern that the bill requires almost every American to have health insurance, but includes no direct controls over the premiums insurance companies may charge for policies.

A government option, proponents say, will guarantee at least one affordable policy and put competitive pressure on private companies to control their prices.

But critics say that the public option will drive most private insurers out of business because it will be able to underprice profit-sensitive private enterprises. That, critics say, is why offering a government option is the first step along a road to government domination if not total control of the health-insurance market.

On the eve of the Senate Finance vote, liberal groups Monday started airing TV ads criticizing key committee members for opposing a public option.

In Montana, the home state of Baucus, an ad by Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for America features a father facing large medical debts because insurance will not cover his heart-disease treatment.

A similar ad has run in Maine, the home state of Sen. Olympia Snowe, the only Republican member of the Finance committee who is even considering supporting the bill.