Senator Claire McCaskill says negotiations about a Senate healthcare bill are widespread throughout the nation’s capitol. She says Senators are “up to our elbows” in discussions.
She hopes the President can get a bill by the end of the year but she says the calendar is less important than it is important to pass a bill that is “right.”
She thinks business will do well in the final proposal, which she thinks will give companies a lot of flexibility for whatever insurance program they want to embrace in their companies.
“Some of us are working on amendments to try to incentivize more innovations inside the workplace as it relates to keeping down healthcare costs,” she says, “I”m not aware of anyone who is trying to circumvent or limit the kinds of options that people would have in the workplace with the healthcare program.’
McCaskill says there are several proposals for some kind of public option. She says she supports the concept of a public option as long as Congress limits the amount of federal money spent on it. She says other companies have to be able to compete.