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Sanders keeps (public) option open

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MONTPELIER – U.S. Sen. Bernard Sanders is not giving up on the public option.

Sanders, a Vermont independent, said he will consider adding an amendment creating a government-operated health insurance program to the final health care bill during the Senate's reconciliation process.

But before that happens, Sanders said he is hopeful – although not entirely optimistic – that a public option could be included in the health care bill that will be sent to the Senate chamber by House lawmakers later this week.

"The public option, to my view, is extremely important because people should have the right to buy into a Medicare-style program instead of the private insurance programs," Sanders said during a telephone call Monday afternoon.

The long road to health care reform in Washington, D.C., could finally come to an end this week as the House prepares to vote again on a bill. Under direction from President Obama, that bill could quickly head to the Senate for another vote, possibly through a parliamentary procedure known as reconciliation.

Sanders, whose effort earlier this year to hold a Senate vote on a single-payer health care system which lead to a Republican filibuster, said his sense right now is that a vote on the health care bill in the House – whether or not it includes a public option – will be very close.

"It may come down to two or three votes," he said.

If the bill coming from the House does include a public option, Sanders said there are enough votes in the Senate to pass it through reconciliation – which requires a simple majority of 51 votes to pass, as opposed to the 60 needed through the Senate Republicans' use of a silent filibuster.

"I think we have the votes in the House to pass it," Sanders said. "And I know we do have the votes in the Senate to pass it."

The chance that the House would pass a health care bill with a public option seems slim. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, told reporters Friday her chamber's version of the bill will not include it because she believes the Senate does not have the votes to pass it.

"We had it, we wanted it ... it's not in the reconciliation," Pelosi said, according to The Hill Web site.

Sanders said he is strongly considering offering an amendment during reconciliation allowing for a public option, but said that too is an uphill battle because, if it passed, the bill would then go back to the House for another vote.

"The process forward right now is very complex and dicey," Sanders said.

Despite the tough chances for the public option, Sanders said there are still many provisions in the proposal that he is excited about. This includes $12.5 billion over five years for community health centers.

Sanders said that is more than double the funding available right now, although he is hoping to boost that funding yet again. Right now Vermont has eight centers across the state in 41 locations with about 110,000 people using their services.

"If this bill passes, we will see two more community health centers open in Bennington and Addison counties," Sanders said. "This would be a major step forward."

He also said that the state's congressional delegation – which also includes Sen. Patrick Leahy and Rep. Peter Welch, both Democrats – to include boosted Medicaid funding for Vermont to keep that funding in line with what other states may be getting.

And Sanders is also hopeful that a provision can be included to allow states to pass their own single-payer health care system.

"No matter what happens with this bill, this is not the end of the road for the health care debate," he said. "In the days after we pass this bill, and I think we will pass this bill, we will begin to look at ways to strengthen it."

daniel.barlow@rutlandherald.com.