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Health care negotiators close in on deal
Source: Agencies |
January 15, 2010, Friday
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AFTER months of divisive debate, a final deal on US President Barack Obama's health care remake appeared within reach yesterday as negotiations picked up speed and House Democrats prepared to hear directly from the president.
Seeking to make his top domestic priority a reality, Obama planned a personal appeal to House Democrats, who are being asked to make major concessions.
Obama wants to get a health care bill finished before he makes a State of the Union address to Congress early next month and lawmakers are feeling the pressure to move on to other issues, from unemployment to ballooning budget deficits.
Democrats could trumpet health care reform as a major success as they ramp up their campaigns for elections in November. Republicans also look to score political gains from their opposition to the measure, which they see as a costly and intrusive government takeover of health care.
The United States is the only major developed nation that does not have a comprehensive national health care plan for its citizens. About 50 million Americans are without insurance. With unemployment rising, many Americans are losing health care insurance when they lose their jobs because employers provide medical plans.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, a Democrat, told reporters that negotiators hope to reach agreement on the core elements of the legislation by Friday, and send the package to the Congressional Budget Office for its estimates. The budget office must review the legislation before Congress can cast a final vote.
That agreement would cover key issues such as how many Americans would get coverage, and how to pay for it. Certain issues, including restrictions on taxpayer funding for abortion, legal in the US but always a contentious subject, would be resolved later.
Obama and Democratic leaders spent all day Wednesday working intensely to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions of the legislation, which would expand coverage to more than 30 million people now uninsured, bar insurers from denying coverage to people with medical problems, and attempt to rein in ruinous increases in health care costs.
Negotiators were to meet again Thursday at the White House. Democratic bargainers were also considering seeking more money from drug makers and other provider groups to help subsidize care for the uninsured.
In a step toward reaching final agreement, union leaders bowed to White House demands for a new tax on high-cost health plans that many unions have obtained down through the years in contract negotiations. Obama wanted the tax to help rein in costs of his health care plan.
But that position courted conflict with labor leaders who fear exposing their membership to higher taxes, as well as with House Democrats who omitted it from legislation they originally passed. It appeared that the White House had made unspecified concessions to get agreement from the unions, a core constituency in the Democratic party.
Public support for the health care remake continues to drop, perhaps in part because of the messy debate in Congress. In the state of Massachusetts, the race to fill the seat of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy is turning into a referendum on health care overhaul, with Republicans hoping to capitalize on voters' misgivings and defeat the Democratic candidate.
Seeking to make his top domestic priority a reality, Obama planned a personal appeal to House Democrats, who are being asked to make major concessions.
Obama wants to get a health care bill finished before he makes a State of the Union address to Congress early next month and lawmakers are feeling the pressure to move on to other issues, from unemployment to ballooning budget deficits.
Democrats could trumpet health care reform as a major success as they ramp up their campaigns for elections in November. Republicans also look to score political gains from their opposition to the measure, which they see as a costly and intrusive government takeover of health care.
The United States is the only major developed nation that does not have a comprehensive national health care plan for its citizens. About 50 million Americans are without insurance. With unemployment rising, many Americans are losing health care insurance when they lose their jobs because employers provide medical plans.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, a Democrat, told reporters that negotiators hope to reach agreement on the core elements of the legislation by Friday, and send the package to the Congressional Budget Office for its estimates. The budget office must review the legislation before Congress can cast a final vote.
That agreement would cover key issues such as how many Americans would get coverage, and how to pay for it. Certain issues, including restrictions on taxpayer funding for abortion, legal in the US but always a contentious subject, would be resolved later.
Obama and Democratic leaders spent all day Wednesday working intensely to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions of the legislation, which would expand coverage to more than 30 million people now uninsured, bar insurers from denying coverage to people with medical problems, and attempt to rein in ruinous increases in health care costs.
Negotiators were to meet again Thursday at the White House. Democratic bargainers were also considering seeking more money from drug makers and other provider groups to help subsidize care for the uninsured.
In a step toward reaching final agreement, union leaders bowed to White House demands for a new tax on high-cost health plans that many unions have obtained down through the years in contract negotiations. Obama wanted the tax to help rein in costs of his health care plan.
But that position courted conflict with labor leaders who fear exposing their membership to higher taxes, as well as with House Democrats who omitted it from legislation they originally passed. It appeared that the White House had made unspecified concessions to get agreement from the unions, a core constituency in the Democratic party.
Public support for the health care remake continues to drop, perhaps in part because of the messy debate in Congress. In the state of Massachusetts, the race to fill the seat of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy is turning into a referendum on health care overhaul, with Republicans hoping to capitalize on voters' misgivings and defeat the Democratic candidate.
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