Brown: Insurers win if public option passes with 'trigger'

The Congress will have handed health insurers a victory if they pass health reform legislation including a "trigger" on the public option, one senator said Thursday.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) asserted that there is a majority of votes for a straightforward public option among senators, and that including the so-called "trigger," which would kick in a public plan down the line if the health market doesn't improve, would be too big of a concession.

"More than 50 members of the Senate are supportive of a straightforward public option, even with the opt-out," he said on ABC News's "Top Line" webcast. "The trigger is a way for the insurance companies to win."

The Ohio Democrat reiterated a claim that the final health bill passed by Congress would contain an even more robust public option than the one to be passed in preliminary Senate legislation.

"The bill coming out of the conference will look a lot like the language that came out of the [HELP] committee," Brown said.