South Dakota Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin won’t accept the National Republican Congressional Committee derogatorially labeling Democrats who are open to a public option as part of health care reform. In the weekly conference call with reporters, Democrat Herseth Sandlin laid out her logic on a public option to access the federal employees health care plan, which is a complicated matter, she said, as much as the NRCC “may want to suggest it is black and white.”

Herseth Sandlin said “I am going to be pragmatic,” and added that when she explains her rationale on a public option, South Dakotans understand the conundrum. She began by noting she’s part of the fiscally moderate Blue Dog Coalition of 52 Democrats, who “think far too much attention has been paid to the public option,” since there are lots of other portions of health care reform to consider, particularly long-term cost containment.

“The Blue Dog Coalition has a position that if a public option is included, that it should be based in negotiated rates, that it operates on a level playing field with the private plans and that it should be subject to a trigger,” Herseth Sandlin said, and that’s still her position.

She said she would not support a public option that is based on Medicare reimbursement rates (sometimes called a “robust public option”), since South Dakota for decades has “suffered” under disparity with the state’s Medicare rate being less than the national rate.  That would cause degredation to the state’s health care system, Herseth Sandlin asserted.

“I have never felt the public option is essential. I have not taken it off the table, because there are a whole host of other issues important to South Dakotans and our health care delivery system that I have wanted to be able to effectively negotiate. I think the President stated it well in his September address, that the public option, you know, its impact shouldn’t be exaggerated by the right or the left, and it unfortunately has been used, you know, in an ideological battle here. I think it is important to determine whether or not there is going to be any flexibility, going forward, to change how that public option would look. But if it remains a public option based on Medicare rates in the House version of the bill, I won’t be able to support that, but hope that I would be able to support a conference report that I know won’t include a public option based on Medicare rates,” Herseth Sandlin said.

Herseth Sandlin said the chances to get Republicans to join as part of a bipartisan health reform effort in the House have gone out the window. She wants to see reform that doesn’t “pass by the skin of our teeth” with the minimum 218 votes, but with 230 or more votes as a goal. That necessitates give-and-take over what the final bill would include, and she likes some things discussed in the Senate. Herseth Sandlin said it will be interesting to see whether House leadership bows to liberal Democrats who want a robust public option.

Tags: blue dog democrats, health care reform, national republican congressional committee, politics, stephanie herseth sandlin

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 10:45 am and is filed under Key issues, South Dakota federal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.