The Senate has more than one way to get to agreement on the controversial public option, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said Friday.Though Harkin insisted he continues to support a "robust" public option, his comments underscored how Senate Democrats are trying to leave themselves adequate wiggle room to approve something smaller in scale.
During a conference call hosted by the liberal activist group Families USA,
| Harkin indicated that Senate Democrats had narrowed their choices to a full public option, a proposal that would allow states to opt out of the program and Sen. Olympia Snowe's (R-Maine) idea of creating a "trigger" that would launch a public option in any state where insurers fail to meet residents' needs. |
Harkin's committee passed a bill that would create a nationwide government-run health insurance public option program that would compete with private insurers, the approach that remains the favorite of liberals. But in an attempt to appease wary centrist Democrats and Snowe, Senate Democrats have been eyeing several compromise proposals.
As he has on previous occasions, Harkin offered a strong defense of the public option in his committee's bill and made clear that he intends to keep pushing for it to be included in the final Senate bill, which must be combined with a Finance Committee measure without a public option.
"As the chairman of the HELP Committee, I'm advocating for what we have in our bill," Harkin said. "Quite frankly, I think we got it right."