Pelosi in Philly: Keep the public option
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said during a visit to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital today that a government-run insurance program must be in the final version of health-care reform, even as other Democratic leaders have suggested it could pass without the provision.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said during a visit to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital today that a government-run insurance program must be in the final version of health-care reform, even as other Democratic leaders have suggested it could pass without the provision.
"No bill can pass the House of Representatives without a public option in it," Pelosi said, after touring the hospital emergency room.
She was joined by U.S. Reps. Bob Brady, Chaka Fattah and Allyson Schwartz, all Philadelphia-area Democrats at an event designed to highlight the need for passage of legislation to control health-care costs and expand access to insurance coverage.
Pelosi said the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the "public option" of health insurance would squeeze $100 billion in costs from the system over 10 years because of competition with private insurers. "That's hard to ignore," she said.
The California Democrat also said that a government-run alternative is necessary to "hold the insurance companies to the reforms we have in the bill," including a ban on denying coverage for preexisting conditions and a prohibition of imposing lifetime caps on coverage.
Pelosi said that a health reform will pass the Congress "within weeks."
Contact staff writer Thomas Fitzgerald at 215-854-2718 or tfitzgerald@phillynews.com.
