By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — Sen. Blanche Lincoln said today she is still waiting to see a compromise health care bill headed for the Senate floor, but she would have difficulty supporting any legislation that includes a government-funded insurance option.

Lincoln, D-Ark., spoke to the Arkansas Farm Bureau a day after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D.-Nev., announced the completion of compromise health care legislation drawn from bills passed out of Senate committees. Reid said the bill would include a public insurance option but would allow states to opt out of the program.

“I have real concerns about a public option that is government-run and/or government-funded,” Lincoln said in a video conference with Farm Bureau members in Arkansas. “In terms of states being able to opt out, I think in my visits with our state officials that they would prefer something they could opt into.”

Opt-in and opt-out approaches both would have pros and cons, Lincoln said. If states are allowed to opt in, then it would take a while for the public plan to gain enough members to bring down costs, she said.

“But opting out is a problem too, because you have to wait until legislatures meet and things like that,” she said.

A spokesman for Gov. Mike Beebe told the Arkansas News Bureau on Monday it is “way too early” for Beebe to take a position on the opt-out idea.

A government-run, government-funded insurance plan would not be on a level playing field with the private insurance industry and would create “an imbalance in the marketplace,” said Lincoln, a moderate Democrat whose vote is considered key to passing health care reform.

“We definitely are going to have to hold the insurers’ feet to the fire. … A nonprofit entity out there providing (coverage) could really do the same thing, and it wouldn’t leave the taxpayer holding the tab,” she said.

Lincoln said existing government health insurance plans such as Medicare work well, but “I don’t believe that we need a new government plan, a new government health care system. If it’s government-run or government-funded, I’m going to have some tremendous troubles with being able to support moving forward on something like that.”

In remarks introducing Lincoln, Arkansas Farm Bureau President Randy Veach said the organization opposes “a national health plan in any form.”

Some members asked Lincoln why health care reform should include a mandate for everyone to obtain insurance.

“If we can get our arms around the uninsured, then the cost for others is going to go down,” she said. “In Arkansas, on average, if you’re insured today you’re spending about $1,500 annually more than you should be to cover the uninsured.”

Subsidies and tax credits would be available to help low-income people buy insurance and help small businesses provide coverage to employees, Lincoln said.

Lincoln is expected to face a tough contest next year for re-election to a third term. Former Arkansas Farm Bureau President Stanley Reed has said he may run for the Republican nomination to challenge Lincoln, and at least seven other Republicans have announced as candidates.

Lincoln told Farm Bureau members she was honored to be selected recently as chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

“That means that we’re in charge, folks,” she said. “It means that we’re there to be a real voice for agriculture.”

“We are very excited about your leadership in that position,” Veach told Lincoln.