Rockefeller: "I want a bill." Harkin: "This bill...is a giant step forward." [View All]

[jefferson_dem]

Rockefeller, Harkin Say They’ll Give Up Public Option (Update1)
By James Rowley and Laura Litvan

Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Senate Democrats Jay Rockefeller and Tom Harkin said they would be willing to drop a “public option” government insurance program to win passage of a health-care overhaul.

“I want a bill,” Rockefeller, of West Virginia, told reporters before Senate Democrats met to discuss the legislation this afternoon. “At some point you’ve got to switch from the sentiment, the emotion, the power of the word” to the facts.

The two senators’ statements suggested a deal might be close. Harkin, an Iowa senator and chairman of the Senate health committee, said he also would be willing to drop a proposal to let people as young as 55 buy into the Medicare program for the elderly.

“This bill, without public option, without Medicare buy-in, is a giant step forward toward transforming American health care,” said Harkin. “That’s reality, there is enough good stuff in that bill that we should move ahead with it.”

Without any Republican support, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid needs all 60 votes controlled by Democrats to get a bill passed. The two senators spoke as one of the holdouts, Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, said he believes the chamber is close to a health-care agreement.

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