Details Still Lacking on Obama Proposal

Washington Post: White House Unclear on How Some Far-Reaching Health Care Goals Would Be Met

(Washington Post)  This story was written by Ceci Connolly.

---

One day after President Obama pitched his plan for comprehensive health-care reform to a joint session of Congress, administration officials struggled Thursday to detail how he would achieve his goal of extending coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans without increasing the deficit.

In two public appearances and private meetings with a dozen lawmakers, Obama promised a "full-court press," saying, "We have talked this issue to death." He also argued that new Census Bureau figures showing a slight uptick in the number of uninsured Americans only underscores the urgency of enacting major legislation this year.

CBSNews.com Special Report: Health Care

The 10-year, $900 billion proposal Obama envisions borrows heavily from concepts circulating on Capitol Hill, but there was little evidence that the broad ideas are sufficient to break a congressional logjam.

After declining for months to identify himself with the details of emerging legislation, the president for the first time Wednesday embraced a set of ideas as "my plan." But the White House released scant specifics on legislation advertised as including new taxes, changes in malpractice law, a new national high-risk insurance pool, a commission on eliminating Medicare fraud, and tax credits for individual consumers and small businesses that cannot afford insurance.

"His speech was very specific and, as promised, answered the big questions about how we should proceed on providing a secure and stable health system for all Americans," White House spokesman Dan Pfeiffer said. "Many of the details will be worked out in the legislative process."

Even the president's efforts to bridge the partisan divide -- in his speech, he endorsed two ideas developed by Republicans -- were met with skepticism.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who grinned Wednesday night when Obama embraced his idea for a high-risk pool that would serve as a safety net for people who are currently difficult to insure, was collecting signatures Thursday on a petition in opposition to the president's entire plan.

The Obama proposal is an "egregiously expensive and expansive form of government-run health care," McCain said in an online letter to supporters.

More troubling for Obama were the mixed signals from Democrats who, absent any signs of significant Republican support, have increasingly become the focus of the president's lobbying effort. After a White House meeting with Obama, Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) voiced concerns that the most prominent health-care proposals fall short.

"We all understand that we want to move toward universal coverage, but I don't think we're focusing enough on costs," he said.

Although virtually every Democrat found something to like in the president's 47-minute address, the interpretations of what he meant varied widely, suggesting more difficult negotiations ahead. On the controversial question of whether to form a new public insurance option, many liberals characterized what was widely interpreted as Obama's neutral stance to be unwavering support for the idea.

"We were pleased you explicitly expressed your support for a public option as a central piece of achieving true reform," leaders of the House Progressive Caucus wrote in a letter to Obama.

Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) said the bill that will be sent to the House floor for a vote will have a public option "of course." But other high-ranking Democrats suggested the idea could be left out.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said he could support nonprofit, member-run cooperatives as an alternative.

Acknowledging that different wings of the party were focusing on the parts of Obama's speech that fit their own preferences, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) nevertheless said the current state of affairs is far better than the infighting that led up to it. "Are you surprised that people are focused on the part of the speech they liked best?" he asked reporters. "That always happens, and we all do that. But I think we are making progress."

Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg said Obama's speech soothed voter unease over cost and probably resonated with middle-class insured Americans. "The critical step now is for Congress to move," he said.

R. Bruce Josten, a vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, however, said: "I don't think we heard anything from the president that sets Congress back on track."

The broad concepts sketched out by Obama would move the country to a health-care system in which individuals and employers share the burden of medical costs. Obama wants to give tax credits to working Americans and some small businesses to buy insurance, but he has yet to identify who would be eligible for the credits, how large they would be or how much they would cost.

Obama did specify one policy change to help pay for reform, singling out the proposal of Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) to tax insurance companies on high-priced "Cadillac" policies. Aides could not say at what level the tax would begin or how high it would be, but Pfeiffer noted that Obama has previously endorsed other financing ideas.

"From Day One, we have laid out several very specific options from within the system and to raise revenue to pay for health care. He outlined another proposal last night," Pfeiffer said. "What should be crystal clear is that the president is 100 percent committed to signing a health reform bill that does not add a dime to the deficit."

In a 3 1/2 -page document posted on WhiteHouse.gov, the administration proposes a new commission to ferret out waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare. But some aides said the proposal would give the panel authority to advance much broader changes in coverage and reimbursement rates.

The high-risk pool inspired by McCain would use federal money to help high-cost patients buy insurance while other reforms are put in place. White House aides said Congress would work out the specifics.

Many of the Obama concepts are similar to those in a blueprint drafted by Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.). The panel's bipartisan "Gang of Six" negotiators still appears to be struggling to settle basic questions, such as how much health coverage uninsured people should be required to buy, and how much the government should help to pay for it. That topic has dominated discussions in the group for at least two months.

For weeks, the group of senators has debated a proposed Medicaid expansion and whether a bill should include explicit language that would ban both abortion coverage and benefits to illegal immigrants. Baucus hopes to release his bill on Sept. 18.

"The ideal bill would be one that takes the president's specifics, mixes that with what Democrats can agree to in the Baucus plan and stretch it to hold Snowe," said Len Nichols, head of health policy at the New America Foundation.

Obama, who is emerging as the lobbyist in chief for health-care reform in what are becoming almost daily sessions with lawmakers, expressed patience -- up to a point.

"I continue to be open to suggestions and ideas from all quarters -- House members, Senate members, Democrats, Republicans, outside groups," he said after a Cabinet meeting Thursday. "What we cannot do is stand pat."

Staff writers Paul Kane, Ben Pershing, Shailagh Murray and Perry Bacon Jr. contributed to this report.

Full CBSNews.com coverage of the president's speech on health care:

Obama Tells Congress to Stop Bickering
Full Video Full Transcript Speech Highlights
GOP Response: "It's Time to Start Over"
Marc Ambinder: Will Obama's Sales Job Work?
Mark Knoller: Obama Willing to Compromise - Up to a Point
Was Obama Clear on the Public Option?
Ted Kennedy's Letter to Obama
Rep. Wilson Apologizes for Obama Speech Outburst
Analysis: The Road Ahead for Health Care

[k9insky]

Just wanna know how much more I'm gonna pay for the same insurance.

[tdmock59]

CBA you need to do your job. This is a mmajor story and just like the Van Jones story, you are trying to sweep this under the rug, ignore it, or downplay it as much as possible because it reflects negatively on the Democratic party and the President. Conservatives know what your game is but, the under or only slightly informed may miss this story because of your biased reporting of the news. This is a huge disservice to the people of this country who expect and derve the truth and ALL of the news.

[woeisme1]

And that will cost the republicans the rest of their seats next election. I hope the republicans continue with their fanatical extremism.

[bcpats]

by woeisme1 September 11, 2009 11:37 AM EDT
And that will cost the republicans the rest of their seats next election. I hope the republicans continue with their fanatical extremism.

YOU WISH ! !

[woeisme1]

Obama made two concessions lastnight. A willingness to talk about Tort Reform and the Public Option.

What Obama did was nothing less than brilliant. He has essentially said to the republicans,"Okay. Those are you concerns. Fine. Let's deal with them". By doing so the whole issue now rests squarely with the republicans. It's do or die time for them. They wanted bi-partisanship. You got it now use it.

The down side for the republicans is that if they now just continue to tear apart Obama and his plan rather than offer real, viable solutions, we will all know that the republican problem is not about healthcare, it's about Obama, it's about a black man in the Whitehouse.

So the republicans wanted to run their mouths, fine. Obama shut them lastnight. Let's see what the republicans do now. Lets see if they continue to lie, propagate lies, mis-inform and generally act like the jerks they have been in recent months.

All eyes are on the republicans now. If they play their nasty no game, the dems are readying as we speak for reconciliation. The republicans will have forced that because they will have proven that they had no desire for real reform, it was Obama they were after.

[bcpats]

Obama's speech/reading was good..... if you can wade through the ambiguities and non-specifics. Cut Medicare to pay for some of it - - rob Peter to pay Paul theory - - will help defray the $billions.... but he says it won't raise taxes??????????? C'mon - - the numbers just do not add up - - even for CBO ! !
Baffle with bs.... make it sound simple, tell people it isn't going to cost anymore....... and the hands go out to get all they can for "free", not seeing past their welfare noses. And the illegals frothing at the mouth to get to the US for their medical/obstetric needs and jamming the emergency rooms they use as clinics for free (to them) care.
His audacity to think that most Americans are dumb enough to believe his rhetoric that private insurance companies can still exist and can be competitive to hopefully keep premiums down - - HOWEVER - - they will be in competition with the gov't. - - the gov't does not have to make a profit - - hence the private insurers will be squeezed out.
He is smooth ! ! ! but Wilson is right.

[woeisme1]

The only thing Wilson was right about is that he was rightly wrong.
Pathetic. Just pathetic.

[cibercore]

The public option is only a tool for Obama?s master plan. People and businesses have figured out what Obama?s master plan is and are scared to death of him. Read the following and you will see why the Obama stimulus is not stimulating and that the economy will not start bouncing back until after the 2010 election.
As part of his strategic plan, Barack Obama has been surrounding himself with czars and officers that are responsible only to him. One such a czar is Obama?s FCC Chief Diversity Officer, Mark Lloyd, who is a former senior fellow at George Soros?s Center for American Progress and a consultant to Soros?s Open Society Institute. Mark Lloyd is a believer that the same methods used in the Venezuela revolution to bring Hugo Chavez to power should be modeled in the US and that the first amendment (Freedom of Speech) should not be used to prevent localism. View video- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF2C235fD7o
As long as Congress rubber-stamps Obama?s agenda, his czars and officers will not rise to the forefront. However, as soon as the leftist congress is voted out of power, the Obama and Soros shadow government will use the czars and officers to by-pass Congress entirely. With midterm elections being over a year away, there is plenty of time for them to put together their civilian army of strong-arms like union thugs, prisoners and black panthers, who would operate under the umbrella of Organizing for America (OFA) and ACORN. Why else was stimulus money sent to prisoners other than to recruit them to do their work? Why else were charges against the black panthers dropped for brandishing a nightstick at the entrance of a poling place, pointing it at voters and making racial threats? Watch theses videos-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1c1c0a6wf5Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KPSjUIJwpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOtGr1JFCnE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neGbKHyGuHU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RLx05jgauU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kQf1-V1Xf8
The Birmingham News reported that groups like Organizing for America (OFA) and ACORN were organizing volunteers to canvas for Obama's agenda. The iconography of the OFA marketing material is bizarre: it is affiliated not with the Democrat Party, but Barack Obama himself. They urge to enlist others who share the Obama vision. According to DeHaven, one of their organizers, "We're not looking for a fight. That will come later, when we have an army."
With the insidious GIVE Act, which provides $5.7 billion to groups like ACORN and OFA to create 250,000 "paid volunteer" jobs, that will play a role in Obama?s re-election campaign, we can only pray that Obama?s shadow government can be stopped and the taxpayer funded "paid volunteer" security force will never become stronger that our military or local law enforcement. Cybercorresponden http://cybercorrespondent.blogspot.com