UPDATE: The NYT has more on the last-minute Senate Finance Cmte. machinations, and the result isn’t really what Barack Obama needs to hear concerning his biggest domestic priority.

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So whom do we believe? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi goes on record as saying her constituents are on schedule to submit a final version of the reform bill “whenever”, and the Senate is still in limbo mode, now essentially including a provision for insurance cooperatives to compete with private plans — a scenario orginially introduced by Kent Conrad [D-ND] and discounted. But is the Senate really eschewing “bipartisanship” for expediency?

After weeks of secretive talks, a bipartisan group in the Senate edged closer Monday to a health care compromise that omits a requirement for businesses to offer coverage to their workers and lacks a government insurance option that President Barack Obama favors, according to numerous officials. … Like bills drafted by Democrats, the proposal under discussion by six members on the Senate Finance Committee would bar insurance companies from denying coverage to any applicant. Nor could insurers charge higher premiums on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions.

And also, what about the role of small business in all of this? If the Senate throws Obama’s original plans for reform under the bus, how will public funds pay for any type of guaranteed care to employees of non-participants? Easy. They’ll be the one’s reimbursing the government for the choices of their employees going elsewhere for coverage.

[ME Sen.  Olympia] Snowe said the idea is to discourage employers from dropping coverage because under the plan their workers could get government assistance to pay premiums. “We don’t want to undermine (employer coverage) or create a perverse incentive where employers potentially drop coverage because their employees can get subsidies,” she said.

Snowe is just one of the Senate Finance Cmte. members taking part on the highest profile committee structuring the Senate version. The committee convened Monday by Max Baucus [D-MT], who still thinks that his definition of bipartisanship will create an acceptable Senate version. The drama plays on. | LINK

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