Senators Dive Into Health Overhaul Details

"I Never Suggested This Was Going To Be Warp Speed," Warns Sen. Chris Dodd On Day 2

(AP)  Initial congressional work on the historic health care overhaul pushed by President Barack Obama is going so slowly that Sen. Christopher Dodd told colleagues: "I never suggested this was going to be warp speed."

Senators pushed ahead anyhow Thursday on what were supposed to be the easy parts of sweeping health care legislation. But they quickly found out that almost nothing about revamping the system is uncontroversial.

First up for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which Dodd is heading in Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's absence, were amendments to improve quality and efficiency. But the debate quickly shifted to more contentious issues including the overall cost of enacting President Barack Obama's top domestic priority of reshaping the nation's health care system to bring down costs and extend insurance to 50 million Americans who lack it.

"You could end up with a bill that's easily headed to a $2 trillion price tag," complained Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., as he offered an amendment that would require proof that various quality measures such as training and identifying best practices would actually save money.

The committee rejected his amendment, as Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., contended it would be "throwing sand in the gears."

An amendment by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, would have limited the use of research comparing the effectiveness of various medical procedures - a hot-button issue for Republicans because they say it could lead to health care rationing. It, too, was rejected on a 13-10 party-line vote.

The committee was on its second day of work on a 600-plus-page bill, but the first day of real work after Wednesday's session was entirely given over to speechmaking. Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, is leading the committee while Kennedy receives treatment for cancer.

Elsewhere in the Capitol senators on the key Finance Committee delayed their own voting session as they struggled to slash costs to under $1 trillion over 10 years.

Members of the Finance Committee, considered Congress' best hope of producing a bipartisan bill, were meeting behind closed doors Thursday for further negotiations.

In the House joint draft legislation was expected as early as Friday from the three committees with health care jurisdiction - Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, and Education and Labor - with hearings to begin next week. The committees are writing legislation that would require all Americans to have health care coverage, and establish a new public insurance plan to compete with the private market.

"I have every confidence we will have a public option coming out of the House of Representatives. It will be a level playing field. For us to have substantial health care reform, this has to be part of it," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Thursday.

The public plan option, supported by Obama, could have a much tougher ride in the Senate where minority Republicans hold more sway and believe it could drive private companies out of business.

The Finance Committee, struggling with the public plan among other issues, was supposed to release draft legislation Wednesday and begin voting on it next week. But the committee announced that votes would wait, possibly until after July 4, as senators sought to retool their proposals to cut the cost by more than one-third, from an initial $1.6 trillion to less than $1 trillion.

Senators on the health committee were considering a lengthy bill plus 388 amendments, but with the most contentious issues - the public plan question and whether to require employers to cover their workers - still unwritten.

The legislation would create a new insurance marketplace where people could shop for coverage plans with help from government subsidies.

As written, it would cost some $1 trillion but still leave 37 million people uninsured, and Republicans are deeply skeptical. The health committee is scheduled to meet daily and was supposed to finalize the bill by the end of next week, but after Wednesday's session Dodd backed away from that deadline, saying he wasn't tied to it.

[jab232]

In regard to a public option for health care, I think the GOP and blue dog Democrats might have a hard time explaining to the seventy percent + of the public who want the private option that, while congress people and their families have the private option, the public should go without. Fifty million (and the number will grow) should be uninsured, millions should be under insured, sixty percent of those who face personal bankruptcy should do so because of medical costs, and thousands should have to undergo rescission, being cut off when you get a serious illness after having having paid premiums for years. Let's face it, this whole thing is the rich insurance companies, medical establishment and politicians against the ordinary middle-class and poor people. When it comes to health care, congress and their families (active and retired) are among the very fortunate and rich.

[usa3world]

Single Payer now! Everybody in nobody out! Nothing else will work!

The insurance companies charge too much in premiums, copays and deductibles, not to mention the 20% or more they don't pay. You get a major illness they will look back at all your medical records and find something so they can drop your coverage! They are Rip off scam artists and America has had enough!!! We need HR676 passed yesterday!!!

[CitizenMikeM]

Private insurers recission=Public Option!

[starleo146]

Congress!!! I do not know who is worse the Republican s or the whole lot we have a President who wants to make change, and these old dodgers, what!! !!! Change!!!! not on my watch, call in the Insurance Lobby, Call in the AArp, call in the pharmaceuticals, hurry we can't have this,and some democrats and all republicans know how bad we need a change. What are they doing about it? Who will be blamed for it if it doesn't succeed? They ought to be impeached the whole lot of them

[whitemale08]

The Answer = single payer


Any other excuse is just for Wall Street/City of London to keep the bailout loot and the Insurance companies profiteering off our pain and suffering.

Dodd should do someting decent for a change and promote 'single payer' and dump the Obama Death-care plan where it's designed to DENY care to cut costs.

Druggie Limbaugh and junkyard dogs Sean Hannity should be proud of Obama's plan because it keeps the the parasitical insurance companies and HMO's in place to suck off the blood of dead patients in order to save costs.

[walt1944]

This health care thing is going to be nothing more than another government/corporate America ripoff.

Everyone knows that insurance companies and the AMA are going to be calling the shots on this and all the cowardly Whimpo-crats will do is rubber stamp everything and claim victory.

The ones who are really going to lose out will be the average person who can't get health insurance because the insurance companies consider them to big a "risk" (against their corporate bottom line!) and those who can't get insurance because it costs too much (Corporate GREEED!!).

Us average people will still have to resort to home remedies and witch doctors qwhen we get sick while GRREEDDYY corporate crooks like Be3rnie Madoff can afford the Mayo Clinic!!

HAIL OBAMA????????

[skyk-2009]

by NY-Joe-10 June 19, 2009 7:13 AM PDT
Are you suggesting that all republicans are Confederates ? how utterly stupid can you get....Lincoln (Union)a Republican, I am from the northeast and Conservative Republican as are millions others.

This desperate attempt by you and the left to suggest that all Republicans or Conservatives are "confederates" or "american taliban" as you said previously, is an insult to every american and especially republican americans.

Sorry you hate the south and southern states, but you should deal with that yourself, don't apply your hate to a political party.

Are you saying the MAJORITY of the party isn't in the South? And were did I say ALL the party was? You can't handle it, go join the massive amount of Republican's now calling themselves Independents. If you were more moderate I'd suggest you switch, like so many Moderate Republican's already have, to the Democrat Party. It's not MY fault they are now a regional Party and only represent 25% or less of the Whole.

[jab232]

One part of the solution is simple. Congress has excellent health care insurance for themselves and for their families. Let ordinary people buy into that plan.

Of course congress won't do that. They feel their privilege allows them to decide that the peons below them should do with less, probably much less. They will finally decide to make the medical establishment and insurance companies (and their million-dollar CEOs) richer while the rest of us are uninsured or under insured. Same ol', Same ol.

[regret-my-vote]

If Medicare and Medicaid are about to go broke I am entirely perplexed as to how Big Brother is going to do anything different with the rest of us.

[skyk-2009]

Now you see THIS is the reason we had to live with the WORST President in US History for 8 years! They are broke BECAUSE the COST of PRIVATE INSURANCE and the UNINSURED have driven the COST up until those plans can't pay them. Did you actually get out of the 6th grade by chance? LOL My GRANDSON is 8 and he knew the answer to that!! LOL

[sjc_1]

Optional National Health Insurance (ONHI) will bring more people under 50 into the program. They pay premiums and do not file claims. The same way private insurance companies make billions of dollars is the same way Medicare will be saved.

[ubrew12]

If America went to single payer healthcare, the transition would PAY FOR ITSELF, in reduced administrative costs. Thats because you don't have to spend money figuring out WHO is insured and WHO isn't, when everyone is insured. Contrast that with the $1-2 trillion cost of adopting ObamaCare. Its obvious in the healthcare debate that Congress is completely in bed with the insurance corporations, who are excited about taking in tax dollars to deny coverage to a whole new segment of the population.

One out of every THREE healthcare dollars spent in America is spent on administrative costs, as insurance agents figure out how to deny you coverage. In Canada, with single payer healthcare, administrative costs are 1% of the total. Thats why they get superior care to the U.S. and it costs them HALF what we pay.

[ubrew12]

Montana Senator Max Baucus says single payer health care 'is off the table'. A January CBS/New York Times poll showed 59% of respondents favored a national health care plan. A February CNN poll showed 72% favored a government controlled plan. Any issue with that much across the board support should be 'on the table'. So, who made Senator Baucus king? What are we, chopped liver? Doesn't our opinion count?

It seems especially surprising that Baucus, from Montana, a rural state, one that would benefit most from a single payer plan, is opposed to any discussion. However if one looks at campaign contributions from the health insurance industry to Baucus, we see why he supports the status quo.

[Aldymac]

When I was 18 I went into the military, I was stationed on the east coast, the guys in my barracks were mostly democrats, and they educated me on a term that was going around at the time. It was called; "living off the fat of the land", anyone remember that? Any way, they told me that it meant; "living off the 'ignorance' of the people". Well, times haven't changed, the democrats are still doing what they did back then, and when they are done with the health care thingy you can bet that the insurance companys and their biggest bed partners, the polititions, will be making trillions of dollars at the expense of the American people. How do I know that? look at who is in charge of the money making machine.

[skyk-2009]

Did you miss NOVEMBER? Is there something YOU do NOT understand about the ELECTION PROCESS? We the PEOPLE Elected the DEMOCRATS and we did so because we have the WORST Health Care System in the World. Now please tell me what your assault on the guys in your barracks all those years ago has to do with the ISSUE of the WORST HEALTH CARE SYSTEM IN THE WORLD? We PAY, right now, MORE and get LESS than ANYONE. Now if I were YOU, I'd be worried MORE about YOUR party or the lack there of and let the ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES of the PEOPLE do their jobs?

[aubfmet]

If you had enough money, you could do everything. How much you can do is a matter of money. The money spent on a heart transplant could save at least a hundred other lives. It's time to start giving heart transplants only to those who can pay for it themselves. That may sound heartless, but I think it would be a good move. Transplant or not, we are all going to end up the same way.

[jab232]

Congress is a privileged elite. They have an excellent government health care plan to insure themselves and their families. The solution for the rest of us is simple. Let us buy into that plan.

Of course that won't happen. Congress wants to keep its privilege and let the peons below them settle for much less (or no insurance at all as it is now for almost fifty million).

[MalloryDavis]

There are more ignorant DEMs than I ever thought possible. The GIMME faction. I WANT...talk about whinners. Yeesh! YOU PEOPLE GET A LIFE AND LEARN TO MAKE IT ON YOUR OWN!

The DEMS in Congress are actually smiling and laughing at all of this. GAWD! PEOPLE! THEY ARE EFFING STEALING MONEY and we have no recourse.

[MalloryDavis]

There are more ignorant DEMs than I ever thought possible. The GIMME faction. I WANT...talk about whinners. Yeesh! YOU PEOPLE GET A LIFE AND LEARN TO MAKE IT ON YOUR OWN!

The DEMS in Congress are actually smiling and laughing at all of this. GAWD! PEOPLE! THEY ARE EFFING STEALING MONEY and we have no recourse.

[skyk-2009]

I ask all of you out there who have had to deal with an HMO or an Insurance Company, just trying to get a bill paid or those of you who have had your medical coverage trashed to "Compete" in the Global Economy to listen to this Greedy, very selfish human and ask yourself if YOU honestly think this is want America is all about. The way I grew up THIS is what you wanted NOT to become. This low life would salute any flag and sell anyone out for profit!

[bc-1948]

As someone who pays $21,000 a year for coverage for myself and my wife - small group plan - with premiums going up 22-35% per year, wanting some time of health care reform isn't "whinning". The problem is real for small groups and individuals. So the reason given for not having a goverment option is that the "premiums would be lower and cause people to switch from private plans." Somehow it is ok for the insurance companies to dictate what procedures are going to be covered - but we can't have "the government between the patient and doctor." Does anyone think the insurance companies care anything about how much money they can save by denying claims? Yes, perhaps people die waiting for care in England - but they also die waiting here after being denied care by their insurance company. I know several personally where that has happened.

So why is private insurance better?

[panhandlpete]

Does anyone think that 30 MILLION still without coverage is really an achievement for all this upheavel and ultimate cost????? Now get real Congress and do a complete job. I thought the focus was on HEALTH CARE....not having HEALTH INSURANCE. Anyone having a major health problem knows what it is like to have to fight the insurance companies to get coverage for their problem. (This is really about getting votes, and the DEMS are going to lose two for every one they gain, so GOODBY Obama.)

[mars7578]

If it is going to cost more to do nothing ,why is the republican right whining?The reason is so that the democrats will come up with a bad compromise.MR.Obama should stick to his gun and ignore those who want to add delay and needless debates to this effort.Mr. Dodd finally said so out loud and the rest of the represenatives should take appropiate stances.

[MalloryDavis]

I suppose it does take time to gleen all of the money out for the next big house or trip to the Bahamas. YOU EFFING PIG\DODD!

[omnibus66]

I am retired and have health insurance partly paid for by my former employer. They are proposing to tax me for the part paid by my employer. At the end of the month I have very little money left over, so I would probably have to drop the insurance.

Time to learn Spanish so I could masquerade as an illegal alien.