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Battle over health care paralyzed with anticipation — MedCity Morning Read, July 28, 2009

The nation’s battle over health care reform — taking place mostly in Congressional meeting rooms, these days — is largely paralyzed with anticipation as everyone waits for bipartisan legislation from the Senate Finance Committee. That legislation might give President Obama an uncomfortable choice: Back the bipartisan deal or back the deals by rank-and-file Democrats who want a bill that more closely reflects their liberal leanings.

By Mary Vanac on July 28, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The nation’s battle over health care reform — taking place mostly in Congressional meeting rooms, these days – is largely paralyzed with anticipation as everyone waits for bipartisan legislation from the Senate Finance Committee, according to the New York Times. Even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — who has become a spokesperson for progress on two sets of legislation moving through the House — seems to be waiting for the finance committee’s next move, the Times said in a separate story.

President Obama, the general in the fight, and Congressional leaders agree that if reform is to be struck with support from both Democrats and Republicans, it will come from the Senate Finance Committee. The committee’s six senators have been gathering since June 17 – often twice a day, usually for several hours at a time — in a conference room with burnt sienna walls in the offices of Max Baucus, chairman of the committee and a Montana Democrat, the Times said.

In the middle of their conference room table is a pile of snacks. Last week, there were chippers — chocolate-covered potato chips described by a sign as “North Dakota diet food,” the Times said. The senators need snacks like Oreos, Doritos and beef jerky as fuel to get them through grueling hours of talk on topics like the actuarial values of private health insurance plans or the cost-sharing provisions of Medicare.

Sen. Baucus says his group will produce the bill that best suits President Obama’s top priorities — broadly expanding health insurance coverage to the uninsured, and slowing the steep rise of health care spending over the long term, which policy makers call “bending the curve,” the Times said.

But if the three Democrats and three Republicans on the finance committee are to pull off this feat, they must produce legislation that is more conservative than measures already proposed by the House or the left-leaning Senate Health Committee, according to the Times. And that might give the president an uncomfortable choice: Back the bipartisan deal of the Senate Finance Committee, or back the deals by rank-and-file Democrats who want a bill that more closely reflects their liberal leanings, the Times said.

Already, the finance committee has tossed aside the idea of a government-run insurance plan that would compete with private insurers, which Obama supports but Republicans said is a deal-breaker. Instead, the finance committee members are proposing a network of private, nonprofit cooperatives, the Times said.

The finance committee also has rejected paying for House Democrats’ $1 trillion reform over 10 years by charging high income earners an income surtax. The three Republicans on the finance committee have insisted that any new taxes come within the health arena. As one option, Democrats have proposed taxing high-end insurance plans that have values of more than $25,000, the Times said. The committee also seems prepared to drop a mandate in other proposed legislation that employers offer workers’ coverage.

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