Senators Have Health Reform Bill "Options"

But Finance Committee Members Say They Still Haven't Reached Agreement On How To Write Legislation

(AP)  Senators working to give President Obama a comprehensive health care overhaul said Thursday they had figured out how to pare back the complex legislation to keep costs from crashing through a $1 trillion, 10-year ceiling.

The announcement from Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and other lawmakers amounted to a small, parting gift to Mr. Obama on his top domestic priority as Congress prepares to leave town for its weeklong July 4 recess. It moved Congress a bit closer to a deal on legislation to lower costs and provide coverage to nearly 50 million Americans who lack it.

It also capped two weeks of tough going for health care negotiations on Capitol Hill as price tags as high as $1.6 trillion over 10 years sent senators back to the drawing board and forced deadlines to be repeatedly reset.

"We have options that would enable us to write a $1 trillion bill, fully paid for," Baucus said at a news conference.

Baucus declined to detail how the costs were being cut, but options included difficult sacrifices like potentially delaying an expansion of Medicaid, the federal-state program for the poor.

Others have said the changes made in recent days would lower the cost of government subsidies for those who cannot afford insurance, as well as pare back a planned 10-year series of rate increases for doctors serving Medicare patients.

Aides said the Congressional Budget Office had estimated that the elements under consideration would extend coverage to 97 percent of the population, excluding illegal immigrants.

But even Democrats acknowledged that Thursday's announcement fell fall short of a final deal on legislation to meet Mr. Obama's goals.

"There's not a final bill that's agreed to. What there is now is a clear path to having a bill that is paid for," said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., one of seven Republican and Democratic Finance Committee senators who've been working closely on the deal.

Baucus has dubbed the group "the coalition of the willing." All seven issued a brief, joint statement later Thursday claiming progress, even though some Republicans involved made no secret of their skepticism.

"We have not seen language (of legislation) in any way shape or form," said Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah. He questioned how costs could be cut before bill language was written, calling it "gimmickry."

The Finance Committee had hoped to pass a bill by now, but given the setbacks of recent weeks Thursday's announcement was seen as progress. Of the five House and Senate panels writing health care bills, Finance is the only one with a real chance of producing a bipartisan bill, something Mr. Obama has repeatedly said he wants.

The committee will resume work when lawmakers return to Washington after July 4. On Thursday they discussed whether to give more power to MedPAC, a commission that makes recommendations to Congress on Medicare payment rates, Baucus said.

The House also will continue work on a partisan bill that embraces Democratic priorities, and similar legislation is taking shape in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Health Committee lawmakers Thursday defeated an amendment offered by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that would have allowed cheaper prescription drugs to be imported from Canada.

All the bills envision new requirements for all Americans to have health insurance, and prohibitions against insurance companies denying people care.

Still unsettled are the divisive questions of whether to create a new public plan to compete against private insurers, and what types of requirements employers should face to offer coverage to their workers.

Across from the Capitol on Thursday, hundreds of people, including actress Edie Falco, rallied for a health care overhaul.

Organizing for America, Mr. Obama's political operation within the Democratic National Committee, plans thousands of service events around the country Saturday aimed at building support for health care overhaul among a restive public wary of higher costs, lower quality and a giant price tag.

[rhs648]

by sjc_1 June 27, 2009 11:22 AM PDT

We need Optional National Health Insurance, NOT mandatory anything. If the Democrats pass a mandate that people must pay premiums, it will ruin their party and put power back in the hands of the opposition.

You are correct. Universal health care could prove to be a big boon (blessing) to the Republican party. Alec Macgillis had a column in a recent Washington Post article. He pointed out that the red states, mostly in the west and south, have most of the uninsured people. There, wages are lower, unions are weaker, and fewer employers provide health insurance. Mr. Macgtillus points out that blue states (Democratic) will be taxed heavily to subsidize health care in the red (Republican)states. Think of the impact when Democrats in the blue states realize that they are paying higher taxes to subsidize health care for workers in the red (Republican) states. There is a great chance that blue state voters will be voting Republican in the future. Those in the red states already vote Republican. Wow! What an opening for the Republicans in future elections. Thank you President Obama.

[sjc_1]

We need Optional National Health Insurance, NOT mandatory anything. If the Democrats pass a mandate that people must pay premiums, it will ruin their party and put power back in the hands of the opposition.

[1notrub11]

Agreed. Optional national health insurance that is not free and also not mandatory. I could not care less what the Democrats problems are, or the Republicans for that matter. These people who represent us need to use what brains they have to make the most broadly effective system possible for the least amount of money.

The answer is not "free" and not sourced entirely through elevated taxes.

[rhs648]

You are correct. Universal health care could prove to be a big boon (blessing) to the Republican party. Alec Macgillis had a column in a recent Washington Post article. He pointed out that the red states, mostly in the west and south, have most of the uninsured people. There, wages are lower, unions are weaker, and fewer employers provide health insurance. Mr. Macgtillus points out that blue states (Democratic) will be taxed heavily to subsidize health care in the red (Republican)states. Think of the impact when Democrats in the blue states realize that they are paying higher taxes to subsidize health care for workers in the red (Republican) states. There is a great chance that blue state voters will be voting Republican in the future. Those in the red states already vote Republican. Wow! What an opening for the Republicans in future elections. Thank you President Obama.

[babooph]

The dems will have to be the ones who sell out US healthcare-there are not enough republicans to do it-Govt system would have no lobbyists & fat CEO guys to keep the corruption at the current lofty level.

[dmwj2]

Health Care ? for all you guys out there ranting that public heath care is a bad idea because it will lead to:

Rationing of care
Bureaucrats deciding what care you get
Less choice in choosing a provider
Long waits for care
Denial of care
Lower quality of care

We are already there - it is called HMO and PPO, brought to you by BIG BUSINESS that only looks at the bottom line, and what the profit margin is?

[jsd330]

rednomo, 76% of the American People want government health options. Of that 76% what percentage are looking for free healthcare, not competition. A lot of people I have talked to think the government option is going to be like medicare, "free". So maybe your 76% just dropped by at least half, because they don't understand there is no free lunch. Someone has to pay for it, and that will be the working taxpayers in this country.

[andylance1]

If Congress wants to pass a health care reform package with broader support - they need to give alternative medicine a piece of the pie with full recognition of Naturopathic Physicians and payment for herbal medicine and vitamins.

[Solarrays247]

by IThoughtItWasFunnyAsIs June 26, 2009 6:15 AM PDT
Absolutely! Medicare and Medicaid are ALREADY BANKRUPT. And Dumbama is talking about BILLIONS of cuts in both programs.

Not only that Obama said at a town hall event Wednesday night that one way to shave medical costs is to stop expensive and ultimately futile procedures performed on people who are about to die and don't stand to gain from the extra care.

NOW Dumbama thinks he's going to develop PROTOCOLS that tells YOUR DOCTOR when to pull the plug on your loved one. YOU will not have any say whatsoever!

When did Americans get so STUPID they're willing to let this IDIOT make all your decisions FOR YOU? When did he decide that he's SUPREME COMMANDER of your health care options? When he mired himself in communist ideology?




Keep it up....please keep it up! Your ignorance has no boundaries, nor any moral or ethical foundations! Any one of us probably knows of someone or even many someones who have been screwed by the private health insurance industry in favor of bigger profit margins. And save your breath, or in this case your typing fingers! At one time, I was a health insurance agent, and I know very well the inside games!

But keep it up....your mindless rhetoric is helping tremendously to fuel the public option supporters!

Thank you! :=)

[rednomo]

Speaking of "lies":

Senate Report: Insurers Charged 'Billions' to Consumers They Were Supposed to Pay

It's really important to understand that insurers are not to be trusted, especially now that we know they've been defrauding us all along. Former CIGNA communications chief Wendell Potter (watch the complete video here) testified before the Commerce Committee yesterday and summed it up: Don't trust the insurance companies.

Health insurers have forced consumers to pay billions of dollars in medical bills that the insurers themselves should have paid, according to a report released today by the staff of the Senate Commerce Committee.

The report was part of a multi-pronged assault on the credibility of private insurers by Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.). It came at a time when Rockefeller, President Obama and others are seeking to offer a public alternative to private health plans as part of broad health reform legislation. Health insurers are doing everything they can to block the public option.

At a committee hearing today, three health care specialists testified that insurers go to great lengths to avoid responsibility for sick people, use deliberately incomprehensible documents to mislead consumers about their benefits, and sell "junk" policies that fail to cover needed care. Rockefeller said he was exploring "why consumers get such a raw deal from their insurance companies."

The star witness at the hearing was a former public relations executive for major health insurers whose testimony boiled down to this: Don't trust the insurers.

"The industry and its backers are using fear tactics, as they did in 1994, to tar a transparent and accountable -- publicly accountable -- health care option," said Wendell Potter, who until early last year was vice president for corporate communications at the big insurer CIGNA.



Potter said he worries "that the industry's charm offensive, which is the most visible part of duplicitous and well-financed PR and lobbying campaigns, may well shape reform in a way that benefits Wall Street far more than average Americans."

Insurers make paperwork confusing because "they realize that people will just simply give up and not pursue it" if they think they have been shortchanged, Potter said.

Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) questioned the government's ability make matters clearer, saying federal regulation of mortgage disclosures have made the documents borrowers encounter in real estate transactions "hopelessly complicated."

Asked to address the hearing testimony, Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for the industry group America's Health Insurance Plans, said insurers have proposed "overhauling the market rules and enacting new consumer protections so nobody is left out, simplifying health care choices for individuals and small businesses, and reforming the delivery system to improve the quality and affordability of health care coverage."

The report released today alleged that insurers have systematically underpaid for so-called out-of-network care. The issue had been brought to light previously in litigation, committee hearings, and other investigations, including a probe by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. But as politicians and interests groups clash over the current effort to overhaul the nation's health care system, it took on new relevance.

Cuomo described it last year as "a scheme by health insurers to defraud consumers by manipulating reimbursement rates."

[clancy49]

The government owns the financial industry, where money makes money. The government owns the auto industry, where there is high profit and higher profit when you bust the auto unions. Now the government wants to own insurance where the profit is even greater. You take in billions and spend only millions. All government-Federal-State-County-City is all about excessive corruption and greed for the elite few. All permits, fines, rules, and regulations are strictly for the purpose of large income and big perks for the elite few. Are we following a pattern here? The problem with this country requires one simple cure - regulate profits and focus on products. Even the Ford CEO said (finally a bright one) 'We have focused on making money from money so long, we have forgotten how to make a good product.' Instead we are running in ecstasty to jumping off a cliff of destruction lead by the Judas Goat annointed by the elite few laughing at the sheeples. There is no hope for this country or this world. I wish I could avoid this destruction, but the stampede has picked me up and taking me screaming down the cliff with them.

[Stevenapoli7]

It seems the poor, homeless, mentally/physically handicapped should have Medicaid shored up first. Everyone else can purchase their own and live at their own risk.

[mrjoshcan]

Similar to diamonds in the rough, rocky starts give me greater enthusiasm. Business is a round the clock thing that gives a little bit of hope to mostly the lesser fortunate. There has to be some other way to make a million dollars loot besides winning the lottery! What we are confronted with is vision of a prosperous means, not meaning greater hours with less pay. When my ship, the Mayflower landed off Plymouth Rock not too many generations ago, my fore and aft telltale one hell of a circumstance convincing the now American public into persuading themselves that Great Britain holds the excavation of the New World Crown Jewel. Obviously Great Ottoman states prosperity is an extenuation rising after the fall of one another. Like the tool paving ways of countless journey to this place I call my home office or work studio, cutting a piece of dough shouldn?t be awkward to predict. Gallant fever costs less to cure than swine abomination. Diamonds are forever, so should your bank book.

[albert571]

Obama's no different than any other President thats been in office other than he really seems to beleave the LIES he's been telling.Like "TIME FOR CHANGE" what he really ment was you'll soon be scraping your pockets for all your change when your unemployment checks stop comeing!Or pretty soon there won't be any need for paper money...

[rednomo]

People are outraged that Senate Democrats are lining up against a public health insurance option supported by 76% of Americans -- all while taking $80 million of health and insurance industry money.

So we decided to do something about it. We made a TV ad calling them out. And now we're inviting you (and your friends) to put your name in the ad before we air it in Washington DC!

This ad will air on CNN, MSNBC, The Daily Show, and other places that these senators and their staffers will be sure to notice. We'll continually rotate new names in. Please help this idea grow by passing this email on to anyone you think would like to add their name.

Together, we'll make the Senate listen to the vast majority of Americans who say: "We want the public option!" Thanks for being a bold progressive.

If you're interested in putting your name--literally--on this ad, please go to WeWantThePublicOption.com