Senator Cantwell Votes for Public Option

During Finance Committee Debate Offers Her Support for a Public Option in Health Care Reform Bill

September 29,2009 -- Washington, DC – Today, the Senate Finance Committee continued its debate of the America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009 focusing on a public option and its inclusion to any health care reform measure.

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Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), a member of the Committee, voiced her strong support for a public option during the debate and co-sponsored a measure lead by Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to include the public option proposal passed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee in the Finance Committee’s bill.

The amendment failed by a vote of 10-13. Earlier Tuesday, another public option amendment proposed by Senator John Rockefeller IV (D-WV) was defeated by a vote of 8-15. Cantwell voted for both amendments to include a public option.

Excerpts from Cantwell’s remarks on the Schumer amendment in Committee are below:

“A family is paying $7,000 more now than what they just paid a few years ago for the exact same benefits. That means that as inflation is only 2-3%, that healthcare costs are rising about 7% or 8% annually. That’s what’s happening and that’s what’s going to happen again…unless we bring true competition into the marketplace…

“I hope my colleagues will support the Schumer amendment, knowing that without that competition in the marketplace we are buying into in to exorbitant increase in insurance premiums. I don’t want to see that. We can’t sustain it. Having the status quo is not going to help the American economy…

“I’d like to see more competition in the marketplace and I think one of the providers of that competition can be the federal government…

“So the fact that they have had these extraordinary profits in a short period of time has gotten many people in Washington state and many people across the country asking a fundamental question: What are we going to do to restore competition in the market place, so that somebody isn’t just walking away with the store?…

“One example of this from my home state of Washington is Costco. I know many people my colleagues here love to tell me about how they go to Costco. Well they go to Costco because somebody has bought that product in bulk and has driven down the price for them and they have driven down the price because they were able to buy in large volume…

“That’s what the American people want. They want us to stand on their side, drive down the price by buying in bulk and compete with this unrelenting increase in rates that they have seen…

“So Mr. Chairman I support Sen. Rockefeller and I will support Sen. Schumer and I will continue to offer my own amendments to make sure that we continue this effort to give the consumers that kind of competition in the marketplace.”

Source: Senator Maria Cantwell