So if the HR includes a public option and the senate does not......the final conference bill can

[ncteechur]

still contain it. Correct?

Can the conference bill look completely different from either house bill?

[backscatter712]

1. That's when Obama comes in and pushes hard for the public option.

Really, at the point where it's in conference committee, both the House and Senate Dems will be under strong pressure to get this bill to the President's desk - it'll be a lot easier to shoehorn it in, assuming the House bill has a halfway decent public option. Once it gets out of conference committee, it goes straight to the floors of both houses for a vote, and the public will be watching closely, so any Democratic Congresscritter that votes no will pay dearly - both at the hands of the voters, and at the hands of fellow Democrats, who will be furious because that no-vote didn't just hurt the person that cast the vote, but the entire party.

[Zen Democrat]

2. Yes. Just keep Baucus and Grassley off the conference committee!

The other Senate committee bill has a public option. Senate Finance will be the odd duck. So, definitely, I expect public option to be in the final bill regardless of what Baucus et al. do in Finance.

[grantcart]

3. correct

But the problem is that conservatives are almost always more obstinate and liberals more accomodating so the record is not great on recondiliation.

We have to be committed to the public option and draw a line in the sand.

[Phx_Dem]

4. Yes.

[ipaint]

5. The HELP bill in the senate privatizes the public option

Farming out the running of it to private ins. companies.

[Mass]

6. It can. However, I would expect the conservative dems in the Senate to be on the Conference

Committee.