Submitted by admin on Wed, 09/09/2009 - 10:29

WASHINGTON — As members of Congress flew back to Washington after their summer recess, Arkansas’ Rep. Mike Ross said on Tuesday that he will not support any health-care bill that includes an optional government-run medical program.

Ross staked out his position the day before President Barack Obama is to address a joint session of Congress on health care.

“I don’t want a public option to kill health-care reform. It is such a divisive and small part” of the overall debate, Ross said. “We can make health care affordable without getting the government involved.”

In July, Ross voted for a bill that included a so-called public option, but he backtracked after hearing directly from constituents in August. Arkansans made it clear, Rosssaid, that “they do not want the government interfering with their health care.”

Over the past several months, Ross has emerged as a pivotal player in the healthcare debate. He represents the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of more than 50 Democrats who bill themselves as fiscally conservative.

The coalition has expressed concerns about thecost and impact of the healthcare plan favored by more liberal Democrats.

Explaining his previous vote in favor of a bill with a public option, Ross said, “I didn’t want to kill health-care reform.”

But he’s now drawing a line in the sand. “If House leadership presents a final bill that contains a government-run public option, I will oppose it,” he wrote in a “legislative update” released Tuesday.

In an interview, Ross said he did not know to what extent other members of the group shared his view. He noted that the bill is a long way from its final form, as it faces at least 10 votes in the House and Senate before passage.

The length of that process and the fluidity and complexity of debate makes it unwise to take a firm position, according to Rep. Vic Snyder, like Ross a Democrat from Arkansas.

“I wish members would keep their powder dry,” he said.

Snyder has said a public option isn’t necessary, but would wait until he “sees words on paper,” before reaching a final decision.

Instead of focusing on the proposed government-run plan and on insuring those currently uninsured, Snyder said, Democrats - and Obama in his speech tonight - should focus on containing health-care costs for those who already have coverage.

Arkansas’ Rep. Marion Berry, another Blue Dog member, said legislation with a public option cannot pass both chambers of Congress.

“Politically it’s a lay-down,” he said, using a card-playing term for the occasion whena player holding a hand he’s unsure will win folds.

Still, Berry said the “No. 1” issue in the debate wasn’t over the possible creation of a separate government plan. He said the biggest concern for him was whether rural areas, including much of Arkansas, get federal reimbursement rates on par with other areas, which he said would make it easier to attract doctors.

Berry, a member of the House Budget Committee, added that he would favor a public option if it were “done right,” but said he doubted it could be because “the temptation to drive down reimbursement rates is almost impossible to resist” for federal budget policymakers.

Rep. John Boozman, the only Republican member of Arkansas’ congressional delegation, does not support a public option.

In the upper chamber, Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., also opposes a public option.

“We don’t need to create a new entitlement program,” she said in an interview Tuesday.

Lincoln said it was unclear whether excluding a government plan from the legislation will pick up additional Republican votes.

But, she said, “it takes away a lot of the air they’re filling the room with” in the debate.

On Tuesday, Arkansas’ Sen. Mark Pryor issued a statement expressing his opinion that the debate over a public option was over.

Without stating his position on the matter, Pryor said he didn’t believe there was enough support in the Senate for a government-run public option. “So with that said, it think it is time to move on and find other ways to bring down the rising, unsustainable cost of health care.”

Despite setbacks, supporters of a public option say they haven’t given up.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a political action committee that raises money for liberal candidates, last week began circulating a petition pressuring Obama to push for a public option.

In an e-mail, Adam Green, the group’s co-founder, said, “Mike Ross should stop pretending to be an Democrat and just put an I after his name - for insurance industry, which has given him over $150,000 in campaign cash.”

The figure Green cited was from a review of Federal Election Commission records from Ross’ 10 years in Congress done by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan Washington group that tracks money in politics.

Health-insurance companies are opposed to a government option because, they say, it would shift costs to the private sector and force the insured to change their coverage, according to remarks made in August by Karen Ignagni, president of America’s Health InsurancePlans, a Washington membership organization.

“A government-run plan would inevitably rely on its price-setting ability to offer artificially low premiums - effectively subsidized by the private sector through cost shifting,” she said. “This would force employers to drop their coverage, creating a death spiral for private insurance and financial catastrophe for many hospitals and doctors.”