'Very Serious Blow'

" Democrats in the House of Representatives unveiling their health care reform plan speaker Nancy Pelosi says. She wants to open debate on the bill next week and she hopes to have a final vote. Less than two weeks from now. Meanwhile senate majority leader Harry Reid apparently is having a hard time lining up support for his plan he may have to modify at once again if he wants to get it passed. -- democratic senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota is chairman of the Senate Budget Committee in and is our guest right now. Senator you said several months ago that government run insurance the so called public option. Doesn't have a prayer of passing in the Senate and it ought to be jettisoned have you changed your view on that at all."

" Well that was in the context -- public option tied to Medicare levels of reimbursement as you know. That was the proposal at the time coming out of the house. And public option tied the Medicare levels of reimbursement clearly. Could not pass in the United States you've already seen senator Reid Alter the proposal also it is not. Public option tied to Medicare levels of reimbursement. Even then I'm not certain that it has the votes. And you've already seen a speaker Pelosi all through the proposal out of the house so does not. Public option tied to Medicare levels of reimbursement. But even with the changes. I'm not at all certain it would it have the votes in the Senate so why did majority leader Reid included in the proposal that he brought forward on Monday. Well Jan. Clearly in our caucus is strong majority of the members want the public option. There are those of us who represent states that have low levels of Medicare reimbursement that that would be a very serious blow for my state has. -- the second or third lowest level of Medicare reimbursement in the country. If you had public option tied to Medicare levels of reimbursement. The hospital administrators in my state said the hospitals would go broke so there's no way we could support something like that second. Leader Reid also has a continuing option. Other not for profit cooperative approach that I have proposed that is not government run not government control. And really I think if you look around the world -- the model that works the best to have universal coverage control costs and get excellent. Outcomes health care outcomes after all that should be. The object of the exercise. The model that works the best. Is not for profit insurance that's not government run our government control you know that's just the fact if you look around the world who. The model that works the best."

" Isn't that -- approach however valuable it might be isn't that an approach that speaker Pelosi has basically rejected on the house side."

" Yes and certainly so far this you know at the end of the day if the votes aren't available. Then modifications are gonna have to be made if we're going to try to accomplish the goals of expanding coverage. Containing costs. Improving the health care outcomes for people in this country having a patient centered approach to health care I think that's what the American people want. And what is the best way to do that is a secondary debate that very very important. A very quickly senator do you see this do you know getting resolved this year or is it going to go into 2010. I think it could get resolved this year but it's very very difficult to do. You know one of the things that as we can see. Is taking a great deal of time is getting the Congressional Budget Office analysis. I talked to the director yesterday. And he said it'll be weeks before they get the analysis done on senator Reid's proposal so. I think we're gonna have to be patient takes a long time to crunch those numbers senator -- does Democrat of North Dakota the chairman of the Budget Committee in the Senate thanks. Thank you John we wanna know what you think do you want congress to pass a healthcare bill with a government run insurance option. Go to foxnews.com. Slash happening now send us an email or leave a message on our blog take part of that service."