Government Takeover of Health Care

Upbeat Obama Says Senate Near Health Care Passage

December 15, 2009

AP - Prodded by President Barack Obama, Senate Democrats won tentative backing from one holdout and worked intensely to satisfy another Tuesday as they grappled with the last, lingering disputes blocking passage of health care legislation by Christmas...

In the privacy of a presidential meeting, liberals vented their frustration at having to abandon the last vestige of a government-run insurance option in the legislation, a slow-motion concession made over many months, most recently to moderates including Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Connecticut.

Two days after jolting the leadership by threatening to oppose the measure if it included an expansion of Medicare, Lieberman said with the agreed-upon changes:

"I'm going to be in a position where I can say what I've wanted to say all along: that I'm ready to vote for health care reform."

That left Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., the only known potential holdout among the 60 senators who are members of the party's caucus, a group that includes 58 Democrats, Lieberman, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt...

The White House meeting unfolded as Democrats awaited a final cost analysis from the Congressional Budget Office on the latest version of the bill, and the full Senate pointed toward a vote on an amendment to permit the importation of prescription drugs from Canada and elsewhere.

At its core, the legislation is designed to spread coverage to 30 million Americans who now lack it, impose new consumer-friendly regulations on the insurance industry and slow the rate of growth in health care spending nationally. Most Americans would be required to purchase insurance, and the government would establish a new series of "exchanges" through which consumers could shop for policies.

The measure includes hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies to defray the cost of insurance for families with incomes up to about $88,200 a year for a family of four. Additional assistance would go to small businesses to help them afford coverage for their workers.

Large firms would not face a requirement to cover their employees. But the government would impose charges on them if any of them did not do so and any of their workers qualified for federal subsidies to help them afford private coverage.

The meeting followed an intense two days in which Democrats struggled — apparently successfully — to keep the legislation moving forward despite a flare-up over a proposal to expand Medicare to uninsured men and women as young as 55.

Lieberman announced on Sunday he opposed the proposal. He threatened to join Republicans in voting against the overall measure if it stayed in the bill, and while no formal announcement has been made, officials said he had prevailed.

With the president urging lawmakers to look beyond disappointments they may have about parts of the legislation, several Democrats said that in the private session, liberals lamented the absence of a government-run insurance option they had long sought.

"There was frustration and angst" expressed, said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. agreed: "There's a lot of that going around."

Rockefeller added that Obama had emphasized the historic nature of the legislation, quoting him as saying the bill was the "biggest thing since Social Security." Rockefeller added, "It's hard to ignore that."

Democratic leaders mapped out a timetable that envisioned passage before Christmas — but just barely.

That assumed that Nelson and Lieberman would join 58 others in swinging behind the bill once the CBO cost estimates become available.

The House approved its version of the bill earlier this fall, and final negotiations between the two houses would follow a vote in the Senate...

The legislation would be financed by about $460 billion in cuts in projected Medicare payments to health care providers over a decade. It also includes higher payroll taxes on individuals making more than $250,000 annually and higher taxes on high-cost insurance policies, drug makers, medical device makers and others.

Senate Dems Struggle to Get Health Care on Track for Passage

December 14, 2009

AP - ... Reid has been awaiting final cost estimates from the Congressional Budget Office on an as-yet-unreleased package of final revisions in the measure. The majority leader announced with fanfare last Tuesday night that liberals and moderates within his party had reached a compromise framework on the controversial issue of the government's role in the insurance industry.

It calls for jettisoning a plan for government-run insurance that Reid had initially placed in the measure. In its place would be the expansion of Medicare, alongside a system of nationwide plans to be offered by private insurers and overseen by the federal agency that supervises the health care system that members of Congress use. The government would set up its own plan if no private firms stepped forward, but Lieberman and others object to that and it is not expected to survive.

Democratic aides, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Lieberman later told Reid he would support a Republican-led filibuster against the bill if it contained the Medicare provision or permitted the government to sell insurance in competition with private companies.

The same aides added that Lieberman had responded differently last week when Reid asked him privately about the proposed Medicare provision. He voiced support for the idea, said one official. The aides spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to comment publicly.

Obama Praises Senate Healthcare Deal

December 10, 2009

Reuters - President Barack Obama on Wednesday praised a Senate compromise on a public insurance option, and Senate Democrats said the proposals moved them one step closer to passage of a sweeping healthcare overhaul.

Democratic senators said they still had plenty of questions about the tentative agreement, reached late on Tuesday, and many withheld support until they could evaluate cost estimates of the plans and learn the full details.

After four days of private talks, Senate negotiators agreed to replace a government-run public insurance option with a non-profit approach run by private insurers, potentially resolving the bill's biggest stumbling block.

"The Senate made critical progress last night with a creative new framework that I believe will help pave the way for final passage and an historic achievement," Obama said at an event attended by congressional leaders. The healthcare overhaul is his top domestic priority.

"I support this effort, especially since it's aimed at increasing choice and competition and lowering cost."

The deal could make it easier for the Senate's Democratic leaders to meet their self-imposed end-of-the-year deadline to pass a bill, which would then have to be reconciled with a version approved by the House of Representatives on November 7.

The House bill includes a large government-run public insurance option, creating a potentially difficult negotiation when the two chambers try to merge their bills.

Shares of health insurers rose initially on expectations the Senate would jettison a government-run insurance plan seen as damaging to the industry, but later lost those gains as the market focused on proposed new insurance rules that could crimp profits.

Under the tentative Senate deal, the federal Office of Personnel Management would negotiate with private insurers to offer national non-profit health plans similar to those offered to federal employees...