Citing the need to introduce competition in the health insurance market and contain health care costs, a group of 28 U.S. senators introduced a resolution to include a federally-backed health insurance option as part of ongoing reform efforts.
“Whereas in the presence of a federally-backed insurance pool, those Americans who have become unemployed, live in rural and other traditionally underserved areas, or have been unable to attain affordable health insurance would benefit from consumer choice,” reads the resolution, issued May 21.
It calls for “any efforts to reform our nation’s health care system” to include the government-run insurance pool “to create options for American consumers.”
Sherrod Brown
The resolution was sponsored by Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ted Kaufman (D-Del.), Roland W. Burris (D-Ill.), Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Benjamin Cardin (D-Md).
“Private health insurers always manage to stay ‘one step ahead of the sheriff’- finding new ways to limit care and pass costs along to the consumer,” Sen. Brown, the main sponsor of the resolution, said in a statement. “Giving Americans the choice of a quality, federally-backed, health insurance option will keep private insurers honest and make health care affordable.”
Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care, said he “strongly supports including a public health insurance option in health reform.”
“We need to provide quality, affordable coverage for the millions of Americans the insurance industry has failed – a federally-backed health insurance option is the only reliable way to do just that,” the senator said.
Gillibrand pointed out that with more than 47 million uninsured Americans and millions more struggling with rising health care costs, “the time to act is now.”
“We cannot have a system in which the only choice is private plans,” she said. “Everyone should have the option of buying into a not-for profit public plan at a rate that they can afford. I am proud to join with my colleagues to fight for the inclusion of a public plan option in health care reform.”
Quarter of U.S. Senate supports government-run health insurance option via IFAwebnews .