Hatch ditches bipartisan health care talks

ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf reports:

A release came from Sen. Hatch, who has heretofore been one of the members of the bipartisan Finance Committee group working behind closed doors for health care reform.

We haven't seem him at the meetings for a week.

Now he announces he's pulled out entirely.

In a statement released by his office, Hatch says:

“For months, I have been participating in bipartisan discussions with other members of the Senate Finance Committee in an effort to craft a compromise bill which that could be signed into law and help American families. During our discussions, I grew increasingly concerned that the President and congressional leaders have, to date, been unwilling to roll up their sleeves and agree to protect a bipartisan health care compromise from being gutted on the Senate floor and in a conference with the House. I praise Sen. Baucus and my other colleagues in the group – Democrat Sens. Conrad and Bingaman and Republican Sens. Grassley, Snowe, and Enzi – for trying to come to a bipartisan consensus. However, it has become increasingly clear to me that Sen. Baucus has not been given the flexibility necessary to construct a realistic health care reform bill that can achieve true bipartisan support."

So the pool of Republicans working with Democrats for a bipartisan health care bill is down to three – Sens. Enzi, Snowe and Grassley.