‘Gang of Six’ Senate version of health care reform bill doesn’t include public option

Matthew Reichbach — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:57:05 +0000

The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus, D-Mont., has released the framework for the his committee’s version of a health care reform bill, and it does not include a public option.

Instead, it includes a provision for nonprofit health care co-ops. U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., told Politico that there are “a lot of very good ideas in the proposal,” but that it is “subject to more discussion.”

The proposal warns that it “is not a final product, should not be construed as a Chairman’s Mark and does not include everything that might be in a Mark.”

According to the Glossary of Congressional Terms on TheCapitol.net, a Chairman’s Mark is a “recommendation by committee (or subcommittee) chair of the measure to be considered in a markup, usually drafted as a bill.”

Bingaman is part of the so-called “Gang of Six” senators in the Senate Finance Committee who have been negotiating a bipartisan bill. The group included Baucus, Bingaman, Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Olympia Snow (R-Maine) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.).

Making sense of N.M. ‘gang of six’ senator, Jeff Bingaman

Heath Haussamen — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 19:11:15 +0000

National Public Radio is currently profiling the members of the “Gang of Six” — the bipartisan group of U.S. senators trying to hammer out a compromise on health-care reform. I was on NPR on Saturday morning talking about Democrat Jeff Bingaman — one of those six — for NPR’s profile of New Mexico’s senior senator.

You can listen to the NPR story by clicking here.

New Mexico Independent » Gang of Six

‘Gang of Six’ Senate version of health care reform bill doesn’t include public option

Making sense of N.M. ‘gang of six’ senator, Jeff Bingaman