U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., announced Sept. 15 that he would not support a proposed compromise health care bill because it lacks a public option provision.

The proposal reportedly is the product of the so-called “Gang of Six,” a group of moderates headed by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. The bill was due to be introduced in the committee Sept. 16 and be available for amendments next week, Rockefeller said.

“I’ll have many, many, many amendments,” he said. “There is no way I can vote for Sen. Baucus’ plan for many reasons.”

Yale University professor Jacob Hacker and Campaign for America’s Future co-director Roger Hickey joined Rockefeller on a conference call Sept. 15. Hacker, who has written extensively about America’s health care system, said any bill should contain three core elements: shared responsibility, personal responsibility and shared risk. The Baucus proposal does not embody those elements, he said.

Another proposal, including a “trigger” in the bill that would start a public option only after certain conditions are met, also is unappealing to Hacker.

“Any trigger should have been pulled long ago,” he said. “A trigger is just another way of saying no to a public health insurance plan.”

As of press time Sept. 16, the Baucus proposal included provisions that would establish nonprofit health insurance cooperatives. Such organizations have been tried in the past and don’t work, Hacker said.

“A co-op is not a public plan,” he said.

The Baucus proposal also would levy a 35 percent excise tax on businesses, Rockefeller said. That would be passed down to employees through increased premiums and decreased benefits. Essentially, it would be a tax on 8,000 single people and 21,000 families in West Virginia, he said.

“Sen. Baucus isn’t from West Virginia although he is from a coal state, and he should understand that that means every single … coal miner is going to have a big, big tax put on them because the tax would be put on the company,” Rockefeller said.

Additionally, 42 percent of West Virginians are self-insured through large companies, he said. Those plans would “escape all regulation” under the proposed Baucus plan.

That is why only a public option will provide real health care reform, Rockefeller said.