More than 200 amendments were rejected by the House Rules Committee ahead of Saturday's vote on the Democrats' health care bill, including 11 that would have required members of Congress and other government officials to be enrolled in the same federal insurance plan proposed for the American people.Critics of the health care bill said they offered the 11 amendments -- including some that would require the president, vice president, and Supreme Court justices to give up their Federal Employees Health Benefit Program (FEHBP) to enroll in the 'public option' or Medicaid -- to showcase the problems with the massive legislation.
"If Congress forces our constituents into a public option plan over time, then members of Congress should be expected to do the same," Rep. Howard McKeon (R-Calif.) told CNSNews.com.
The House Rules Committee attempt was the second time McKeon had tried to amend the Democrats' health plan to include legislators in the public option.
"Democrats voted down a similar amendment, 21-18, in the Ways and Means Committee during the July markup of HR 3200," McKeon said. "It became apparent then that Democrats are afraid of being put on a government-run health care program, but that fear does not extend to the welfare of their own constituents."
The public option in the House bill would be a government health insurance agency run by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and available through the federal Health Insurance Exchange.
"This is one of those classic hypocritical moments for the Democrats," Matt Lavoie, spokesman for Rep. Wally Herger (R-Calif.), told CNSNews.com. "They simply don't want to put up with the public option that they are preparing to inflict on the American public."
But Vincent Morris, communications director for the Democrat-controlled House Rules Committee, told CNSNews.com that the amendments were rejected because no one, including Congress, will be forced to sign on to government-run health care.
"The reason we didn't support those amendments is because the public option was created precisely to give the American people a choice between private and public [insurance], Morris said. "Given that all Americans have a choice about whether to join the public option, we thought it didn't make any sense to force members of Congress to join."
Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) said he proposed his amendment because the bill does not fix the problems with the already government-run Medicaid program. His amendment "would make members of Congress a mandatory covered population under Title XIX of the Social Security Act (Medicaid) without consideration of any other asset or qualification test."
