SFC Passes Health Care Reform Bill 14-9, Bingaman, Snowe Vote Yes

After months and months of trying to forge a "bipartisan compromise," Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) was the only Republican on the Senate Finance Committee to join the Democrats in voting for the Baucus health care reform bill this afternoon. The insurance-company-loving bill passed 14-9 with Senator Jeff Bingaman voting yes. The bill does not include a public option. HCAN has more about what is and is not in the bill.

Snowe said her yes vote in the committee does not necessarily mean she'll vote for the version of the health care reform bill that comes to the Senate floor. Obviously, she's trying to wield as much power as possible to keep the bill to her liking, i.e. without a robust public option.

As I noted last month, it's debatable whether Snowe's vote for the SFC bill is a good thing for Democrats and the effort to enact a meaningful bill. Her support might give "moderate" Dems cover to back a weak bill and she'll be loud with her complaints if such things as a strong public option is eventually added to the Senate bill. Meanwhile, Snowe is getting some major blowback from Republicans in response to her vote today.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will oversee the effort to "blend" the Baucus bill with the much better Kennedy bill passed by the HELP committee this summer. Expect Snowe to try to position herself front and center to be a major player in the process, and expect Reid to try to limit those with whom he works closely during the blend to Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) and the White House. 

David Dayen at Firedoglake provides some helpful analysis of how that process will go. Bottom line: If there's to be a public option in finalized Senate bill, it will have to be inserted by Reid during the blending process. It looks like any floor amendments will need to get 60 votes, and it clearly would be difficult to pass such an amendment on its own. A lot depends on how much pressure Obama puts on Reid to include a public option. As of this point, that's an unknown quantity.

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