Pelosi to submit multiple public options for CBO scoring

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will submit multiple versions of the House's healthcare bill for cost estimates, she announced on Thursday.

The first proposal will include a "robust public option," which would tie doctor reimbursement rates to that of Medicare plus five percent. The remaining two drafts submitted for the Congressional Budget Office's consideration would include a public option based on "the negotiated rates that some in our caucus have supported and which was passed by the Energy and Commerce Committee," the speaker explained during Thursday's press briefing.

"And then we'll see back from the CBO what the scoring is on all of that," Pelosi said. "And, of course, we have promised not a dime to the deficit. This is our promise. We will not take a bill to the floor, the president will not sign a bill that adds a dime to the deficit."

Pelosi's latest efforts arrive at a crucial juncture in the healthcare debate. On Wednesday, the CBO revealed the Senate Finance Committee's draft would cost well under $900 billion -- great news for Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and his supporters, who hope to advance the bill to the Senate floor next week.

But unlike both the House's bill and the Senate's second proposal, the draft crafted by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, Baucus' mark lacks a public option. The government plan's supporters now face the daunting task of convincing their colleagues to retain the provision, all the while crafting a compromise bill that costs less than $1 trillion and remains deficit neutral.

Pelosi on Thursday stressed both goals were attainable. She reaffirmed her committment to including the public option in the chamber's final health bill, and stressed her series of CBO submissions would help her party choose which variation was best.

"But we're in a very good place, because we have many good options, and that's why I'm so pleased about where we are," Pelosi said. "There will be the votes for a public option. Now it's a question of which one."