Obama to Rally Senate Democrats on Health-Care Plan
Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama went to theU.S. Capitol to urge Senate Democrats to agree on healthlegislation as lawmakers struggle to resolve disputes overissues including a proposed government-run insurance plan.
Democrats met throughout yesterday to seek an alternativeto Senate Majority Harry Reid’s plan to create the new nationalprogram to cover the uninsured. Opposition within his partyleaves Reid at risk of falling four votes short of the 60 heneeds to pass the legislation, the most sweeping overhaul of thenation’s health-care system in more than four decades.
The president is expected to tell Democrats this is “apivotal time in the debate” and “we need to pick up the pace alittle,” Reid’s spokesman Jim Manley told reporters in a Senatehallway. Obama’s visit comes as the bill’s backers need a joltto come together, said Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry.
“We have to talk about how to put the final piecestogether,” Kerry said. “It’s good to hear from the presidentnow, because it’s getting to that stage where you have to cometo a decision with your heart as well as your head.”
Reid called the rare weekend session to meet his deadlineof getting a bill by year-end. Republicans, unified inopposition, forced the Democrats yesterday to reiterate theirsupport for cutting more than $40 billion in home health-careservices funding under Medicare. It was the latest Republicaneffort to highlight the bill’s potential impact on the elderly.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky saidRepublicans see the debate stretching into 2010 and that theygain the more the public learns. Republicans say Obama’s visitreflects a weakening Democratic position.
‘Wrong Direction’
“The vote tally must be going in the wrong direction,”said Senator Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican.
The $848 billion Senate bill would make the biggest changesto the health system since creation of the government Medicareprogram for the elderly in 1965. The 10-year measure is designedto cover 31 million uninsured people and curb medical costs.
Like a $1 trillion bill that the U.S. House passed on Nov.7, the Senate plan would require all Americans to get healthcoverage or pay a penalty. It would expand the Medicaid healthprogram for the poor, set up insurance-purchasing exchanges andprovide subsidies for those who need help buying policies.
Reid, a Nevada Democrat, is working behind closed doors tosettle issues ranging from how strictly to prohibit federalfunding for abortions to how to shape the so-called publicoption.
Coming to Closure
Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, disputed thenotion that Obama’s visit was needed to rescue stalledlegislation.
“We’re coming to closure” on abortion and the publicoption, Durbin said today on the “Fox News Sunday” program.“The president is going to come in and urge us to bring thisball across the line, to finish this, as he should.”
An amendment targeting insurance executive pay, proposed byArkansas Democrat Blanche Lincoln, may come up for a vote today.It would cap tax-deductible salaries at $400,000 instead of thecurrent national limit of $1 million. The legislation before theSenate already has a $500,000 cap. The lawmakers postponed thevote yesterday.
The Senate also turned back a Republican bid to restore thehome health services funding. The Republicans are trying to drawattention to the impact on the elderly from some $400 billion inproposed Medicare savings.
Drug Imports
Debate could come as early as tomorrow on a bipartisanamendment that would allow imports of lower-cost prescriptiondrugs from countries such as Canada, a proposal that is opposedby Eli Lilly & Co. and other drugmakers. That proposal wasdrafted by North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan and MaineRepublican Olympia Snowe.
Senator Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat, this week willoffer an amendment preventing federal funds from being used forabortions in an effort to bring the legislation in line withwhat the House passed. Nelson is threatening to oppose the billwithout the language.
He also joins three other senators in the Democratic caucuswho say they won’t back a bill that has a public option.
The public option has been a lightning rod in the debatesince Democrats began drafting the legislation in the spring.All Republicans in both chambers oppose creation of thegovernment program, which many say could crowd out privateinsurers and become a precursor for a government takeover ofhealth care.
Opposition
Senate Democrats Lincoln and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana andIndependent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut join Nelson in opposingsuch a program.
Snowe participated in one small meeting yesterday of SenateDemocratic moderates. She said she and Kerry are reviving herproposal to have a national government insurance program only asa fallback, and utilized in states where there is evidenceprivate insurance isn’t affordable enough for people with lowerincomes. It may be offered as an amendment on the floor, shesaid.
Snowe said she won’t back what Reid has put on the Senatefloor because the public program is in the legislation, with astate opt-out.
Senator Mark Begich, an Alaska Democrat, said senators arediscussing other approaches centering on requiring states whereinsurance premiums are deemed too high to provide an alternativeto private insurance that would be provided by a non-profitentity.
“My biggest concern is the cost to the government at theback end,” Begich said of the public option.
Arkansas Democrat Lincoln said the government should be outof the picture completely.
“We want to increase options and choices for ourconstituents,” she said. “I think we can get there.”
To contact the reporters on this story:Laura Litvan in Washington at llitvan@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: December 6, 2009 14:11 ESTSource: Bloomberg
