Max Baucus Regrets Killing Single-Payer, Sanders Says

WASHINGTON - Sen. Max Baucus met with advocates for single-payer health care in a closed meeting on Wednesday and expressed regret that he had not included them in the earlier negotiations for reform.

Health-care point man Baucus (D-Mont.), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, took a statewide beating last week for dismissing the possibility of a single-payer system early in the debate -- leading to the meeting with health care professionals and Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who is the sponsor of the Senate's only single-payer bill.