Health Care Progress Report: October 12
President Obama has set a year-end deadline for passing comprehensive health care reform, and on a number of occasions he has said the nation is "closer than ever before" to making it happen.
CBSNews.com Special Report: Health Care
As Congress methodically -- and sometimes clumsily-- cobbles together a health care bill, CBSNews.com will track its progress for you. Below is a chart to track the six major steps Washington needs to take to accomplish health care reform. This week, the Senate may finally finish step one -- if the insurance industry doesn't stop it first.
More on the progress of health care legislation in each chamber of Congress.
SENATE: Two committees in the Senate have jurisdiction over health care reform. One -- the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee -- passed its relatively liberal bill in July. The Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to have one final hearing on its more moderate bill on Tuesday and finally vote on the legislation. If it passes, the Senate will have finished the first of six steps needed to pass the health reform.
Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) has expressed optimism that his bill will pass. The Congressional Budget Office last week estimated it would cost $829 billion over 10 years, which meets President Obama's goal of keeping the costs close to $900 billion. Furthermore, the CBO estimated the costs would be more than offset by revenues from taxes on the pharmaceutical and insurance industries, as well as Medicare cuts to improve efficiency, actually saving the government $81 billion.
"It's a health insurance company hatchet job, plain and simple," Scott Mulhauser, a spokesman for Baucus, said Sunday. He called it "seriously flawed" because it doesn't take into account provisions that would cut costs for consumers like tax credits to help people buy private insurance.
Additionally, it is still unclear whether liberal Democrats will fall in line in the committee. Two Democrats last week said they were uncertain they could support the measure, for a variety of reasons, as reported in last week's progress report.
Meanwhile, Senate leadership is already looking ahead to step two and considering which elements from the Finance bill and which from the HELP bill to include in the legislation to bring before the full Senate. Even though the Finance Committee bill does not include a government-sponsored health care plan, or "public option," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is reportedly considering including a version of the plan in his bill -- though it would most likely be a less liberal version than found in the HELP bill.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), a strong proponent of the public option, said Thursday the bill brought to the Senate floor may include a public option of which states could opt-out. The plan is being "very seriously considered," he said.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said last week the House is currently considering three different versions of a public option. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office should provide the House with a cost estimate for the plans either this week or next.