Public option voted out of Senate health care reform bill

It was one of the most contentious parts of the Senate health care reform bill and now it may be gone forever-at least in its original form.

Ten Senate Democrats, including Arkansas Sens. Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln voted Tuesday to eliminate the public option and instead offer a new private compromise.

"One of the ideas, and there were multiple ideas that were on the table, the only one that was a public option, was actually allowing states to provide public plans through their state plans," said Lincoln.

The vote came after several meetings by Democrats behind closed doors. Pryor says he worked closely with Lincoln to make sure Arkansas would benefit from the final bill.

"I really think that in the end, once this comes out and we are able to offer the amendment and people can see it, I really think a lot of people in Arkansas will be happy," said Pryor.

The new option would force private, non-profit companies to offer national plans and encourage competition in the market. The new changes would also expand Medicare reducing the eligibility age from 65 to 55. Currently, about 435,000 seniors in Arkansas are on Medicare.

That is according to local AARP agent Maria Reynolds-Diaz, who says many others would like to get on the program.

"What we are doing is hopefully working towards Medicare being more efficient and saving in areas that need to be looked at and improved," she said.

The AARP has is holding off making public statements about the new changes until representatives have read the details. Meanwhile, the senators insist the new plan should make reform better.

"One of the things for me that's better is there is no federal government run plan, no federal government funded plan," said Lincoln.

The changes will have to be reviewed by the Congressional Budget Office to see how much it would cost taxpayers before it is set in the Senate bill.

"This compromise will be something people in Arkansas will really like," Pryor said.

A new poll out this week by Thomson Reuters says most Americans favored the original public option. Almost 3,000 households were surveyed, and 60 percent wanted the option to be included in the final bill.