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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Soul Crusher on July 09, 2009, 03:04:42 PM
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Health care overhaul bill suffers another setback
By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer Erica Werner, Associated Press Writer – 7 mins ago
WASHINGTON – The drive to remake the nation's health care system suffered yet another setback in Congress on Thursday when a pivotal group of House Democrats rebelled against leadership-backed legislation taking shape and sought additional time to make changes.
"We need to slow down and do it right," Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., said outside a meeting of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of 52 moderate to conservative Democrats. "It needs to do a much better job of cost containment" within the health care system, he added.
Other lawmakers said they were concerned about proposed tax increases, the rules on any government-sold insurance, and other issues that are key to implementing President Barack Obama's call for sweeping legislation.
Ross said the group was drafting a letter to the Democratic leadership asking for additional time. Although he did not specify how much time, he said he believes no vote should take place until the fall — well after a midsummer informal deadline set by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The group met as Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee were laboring to put the final pieces in place on a bill that the White House has praised. The party's leadership hopes to unveil it Friday and push it through committee next week.
"I promised the president that we would have legislation out of the House before we went on an August break. That is still my goal," Pelosi said earlier in the day.
The developments came as a similar midsummer timetable appeared in danger of slipping away in the Senate.
There, the Democratic leadership is intent on scuttling a proposed tax on health care benefits that has long been key to attempts at a bipartisan compromise. At the same time, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and others went out of their way to emphasize their interest in gaining Republican support for legislation.
As an alternative, Democrats are considering raising taxes on wealthy investors to help pay for health care legislation, along with numerous other options, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. The proposal to extend the current 1.45 percent Medicare payroll tax to capital gains earned by high-income taxpayers would bring in an estimated $100 billion over 10 years.
Obama has made health care legislation his top domestic priority, and Democrats in Congress vowed to make it their own, as well, when they returned from their July 4 vacation.
Despite some success — the nation's hospitals agreed to a cut of $155 billion in projected Medicare and Medicaid payments — progress has been scant and internal differences magnified.
In general, any bill that emerges from Congress is expected to follow Obama's blueprint for reining in health care costs overall while extending coverage to 50 million who lack it.
Another objective is to make sure that insurance companies can no longer deny coverage or raise premiums to unaffordable levels to individuals with pre-existing medical conditions.
But literally hundreds of details are involved in drafting legislation, and gaining a consensus even among Democrats is proving to be remarkably — if predictably — difficult, despite their large majorities in both houses.
As an example, some Democrats are demanding legislation that permits the government to sell insurance in competition with private companies. Republicans overwhelmingly oppose such a plan, deeming it a stalking horse for universal government-run insurance, and many Democrats have concerns, as well.
Some Democrats prefer a plan for a nonprofit cooperative to take the place of government in competing with private companies. Others favor a government role only in cases in which consumers lack a choice in coverage.
Similarly, Democrats are divided on paying for the bill, some preferring more tax increases than others, some favoring more cuts in Medicare and Medicaid.
"We've just got a lot of question and the top of the list would be how to pay for it," said Rep. Marion Berry, D-Ark., one of the Blue Dogs.
"I don't think we have significant cost-containment mechanisms in the proposal yet," said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. He said he favors provisions aimed at preventing overtreatment of patients and overpayments to doctors, hospitals and other providers.
A dispute over tax increases was at the core of upheaval in the Senate earlier in the week.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and chairman of the Finance Committee, has been working for months with Republicans in hopes of gaining support for a bipartisan bill that can command 60 votes.
Efforts to raise money to pay for subsidizing the cost of insurance had focused on a tax on health care benefits for workers with high-cost coverage provided by their employers.
Baucus and Republican supporters argued it would also have tended to reduce the cost of health care overall, as well as offset the cost of the bill. But the Democratic leadership stepped in forcefully, citing poor public polling, opposition of organized labor and concerns about taxing middle-income workers.
As a result, Baucus and other members of the Finance Committee have broadened their search for alternative taxes to replace the $320 billion the benefits tax would have raised over a decade.
In addition to the tax on capital gains, officials said other options include a fee on insurance companies or drug manufacturers, a plan to allow states to issue health care bonds, and possibly a tax on sugary drinks.
An income tax surcharge on the wealthy was also on a list in circulation, as was Obama's proposal from last winter to limit the value of itemized deductions for those with the highest income.
Neither seemed likely to gain Republican support.
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Hopefully moderate democrats are waking up to this insanity.