The Committee launched right into the public option this morning, with Rockefeller setting the stage by asking sharp questions on how much the insurance companies were providing to the reform in contrast to how much they are likely to gain in the Baucus bill as is--half a trillion dollars--and questioning insurance company policies and how precisely this bill might actually guarantee that insurance companies would have to abide by the reforms.

His concerns are more than valid. There's helluva lot of sweet deals for the insurance companies in the Baucus bill, including all those new enrollees it promises, and the lax oversight they'll be subject to. Like this:

Healthcare overhaul legislation moving through the Senate Finance Committee would put crucial rule-making authority in the hands of a private association of state insurance commissioners that consumer advocates fear is too closely tied to the industry.

The National Assn. of Insurance Commissioners currently writes model laws and regulations that individual states are free to accept or discard. Under the bill by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), it would craft a model rule governing "health insurance rating, issuance and marketing requirements" that would become "the new federal minimum standard without any further congressional action." States would be permitted to deviate from the standards only by appealing to the Department of Health and Human Services. In effect, the bill would allow the group to write many of the new rules on issuing and marketing insurance to millions of uninsured Americans who would be required to purchase policies. "The NAIC is clearly an organization that is dominated by the insurance industry," said California Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, a former state insurance commissioner.

What's standing between this giveaway to insurance companies and real healthcare reform is the public option. And in the Senate Finance Committee, it's Rockefeller and Schumer.

Update: For those riveted to the developments (and who can stand to sit through this, listening to Grassley whine) head on over to the liveblogging.