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player ready...Paving the way for a critical vote on health care legislation in the next two weeks, House Democratic leaders plan to unveil a bill Thursday that would create a new government insurance plan in all 50 states even as they step back from the most robust version of the so-called public option.
According to senior lawmakers and aides familiar with the legislation, it will not dictate what the plan can pay hospitals, doctors and other providers, a goal many liberal Democrats had hoped for as a means to control costs.
“People are coming to realize it’s going to be very tough to get to that point,” said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., a close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Instead, much as commercial insurers do now, the federal government under the House plan would have to negotiate rates with providers, a concession that Pelosi and her lieutenants are making to attract conservative Democrats.
Pelosi’s decision to endorse the compromise comes just days after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., threw his weight behind a slightly different public option compromise that would give states the ability to “opt out” of a national government insurance plan.