Yesterday, U.S. Senator Russ Feingold announced his support for an amendment by Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma to require all members of Congress be enrolled in the public health insurance option included in the health care bill currently being considered in the Senate. Sen. Feingold, a staunch supporter of a strong public health insurance option as a way to bring down costs and help ensure Americans receive affordable health care coverage, had previously stated that if eligible, he would enroll in the public option, and Feingold joins Senators Sherrod Brown, Chris Dodd, Barbara Mikulski, and Al Franken in asking to be added as cosponsors of the amendment:
“I strongly support a public health insurance option as a way to break the health insurance industry’s grip on the health care system and get uninsured Americans good health care coverage,” Feingold said. “A strong public option would lead to good coverage so supporting this amendment is an easy choice.”
It’s good to see some elected officials putting their money where their mouths are when it comes to health care reform, and I’m not surprised one bit that Sen. Feingold is one of those elected officials.
This goes down in flames like the previous amendments trying to do this. It’s the old, “for me, but not for thee.” They have as they say, a Cadillac plan now – they don’t have any interest giving it up for the same plan as unwashed masses.
I certainly do give Feingold credit for supporting this – and to whatever degree it causes legislators discomfort and exposes their hypocrisy, it’s a very good thing. I just have zero confidence it will every be added. And if it were, it would mean death for the bill itself.
As a general rule, I think it should be required that all laws passed by legislators apply to them too – no exemptions. In the tech world, it’s called eating your own dog food.
Locke, you’re absolutely right that the addition of this amendment to the bill would likely mean the death of the bill, but like you wrote, I give Sen. Feingold credit for showing some consistency in his support for the public option.