Ending months of speculation of "will she" or "won't she," Maine Senator Olympia Snowe today cast a critical vote in the planned overhaul of the country's health care system. Maine's senior senator was the only Republican on the powerful Senate Finance Committee to support its version of a health care bill.

"So is this bill all that I want? Is it all it can be? Far from it. Is it all that it can be? No. But when history calls, history calls and I happen to think that the consequences of inaction dictate the urgency of Congress to take every opportunity to demonstrate its capacity to solve the monumental issue of our time," Snowe said prior to today's vote.

The bill would have been approved by the Democratically-controlled committee regardless of Snowe's vote. But by breaking rank with the nine other Republicans, Snowe gave Democrats and Committee Chair Max Baucus their sought-after label of "bipartisan" for the bill. Snowe herself calls some of the initiatives "bipartisan landmark reforms."

"Which is to end the unfair, flagrant insurance policies that have devastated Americans for decades," Snowe said. "We're familiar with them, in rescinding policies when people get ill, or rating premiums on the basis of health status or agenda, or not providing coverage to Americans and denying that coverage."

But Snowe says that her committee vote doesn't necessarily mean that she will support later versions of the health care bill.
She's made clear what she doesn't want to see in the final bill, by repeating her opposition to expansion of government bureaucracy and the establishment of a public option that would compete with private plans.

That was reassuring to groups such as the conservative Maine Heritage Policy Center, but "it was surprising to me that she did break ranks with the Republicans on the committee," says Heritage Policy Center CEO Tarren Bragdon. Bragdon says the Baucus bill would drive up premium costs, limit insurance choices and raise taxes.

But as much he sees wrong with the Baucus bill, he does not fault Snowe for voting for it. "Senator Snowe's vote reflects that she continues to wants to have a seat at the table and be engaged in some type of bipartisan solution. What's not clear is whether the rest of the Senate and whether the House wants to engage in a similar process."

On the other side of the health care debate is Health Care for America Now, a coalition of labor and consumer groups in support of a public option. The coalition praised Snowe for staying engaged with the Democrats, but like the Maine Heritage Policy Center, it criticized the Baucus bill, albeit for different reasons.

They say a lack of a public option makes no sense, considering the fact that the bill includes a mandate for people to buy insurance.
"This bill is not the best option for reform," says Mike Tipping, a spokesman for the coalition in Maine.

Despite the fact that Snowe rejected amendments to add a public option to the bill, the coalition is still running television ads and conducting letter-writing campaigns to get her to change her mind. "Senator Snowe has said that she supports a public option if its triggered by insurance companies continuing to fail to provide affordable coverage," Tipping says. "We believe obviously that they've already failed to meet that mark."

But health policy professor Andy Coburn of the Muskie School of Public Service at USM says that Snowe is not likely to budge from her position on the public option. "I think she's going to look to use the floor of the Senate as the vehicle for garnering support for using a trigger instead of a hard public option."

Coburn says that Democrats will continue to pay attention to Snowe because they want her support for the final bill. Republicans, meanwhile, he says, could have benefitted politically had Snowe voted with them. "I think that Republicans would have seized upon that to really communicate much more clearly there was no bipartisanship in the Senate action, and that could have seriously undermined potentially public support for the plan."

AARP in Maine and Governor John Baldacci's office both voiced support for Snowe's leadership although neither took a position on the Baucus bill.

The Senate Finance Committee was the last of the Congressional committees to vote out a health care bill. There are still weeks of negotiation ahead. The full Senate is expected to take up a health care bill - a merging of the Baucus bill with that from the more liberal Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee -- later this month.

After that, the Senate and House have to hammer out a compromise bill that will be voted on by both chambers.