Posts Tagged ‘Blue Dog Democrats’

New York Senator Charles Schumer Rejects Healthcare Reform Failure

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

Declaring that “failure is not an option” on healthcare reform, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY)  said that the legislation will be passed with or without Republican support. “We’re not going to not pass a bill,” Schumer said, pointing to a healthcare system that is broken because some 47 million Americans lack any kind of insurance coverage.

Before this can happen, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has the task of resolving issues within his own party regarding abortion, taxes and allowing the government to sell health insurance in competition with private insurers.  Democratic leaders are working to persuade Senator Olympia Snow (R-ME) to cross party lines and vote in favor of the ultimate bill, even though she sided with her fellow Republicans on the recent procedural vote to move the debate to the full Senate floor.

Both the Senate and House of Representatives bills require all Americans to have healthcare insurance, and plan to make government subsidies available to help pay premiums.  Insurance companies would be banned from denying coverage or charging extra for individuals with pre-existing conditions.  New insurance marketplaces would be created for those Americans who have difficulty finding affordable coverage – such as the self-employed and those who own small businesses.  Americans who currently have employer-provided coverage won’t see any big changes in their coverage.  Senior citizens will see improvement in their prescription coverage.

As for paying for these bills?  The House bill depends primarily on an income tax hike on upper-income individuals.  The Senate bill would tax Cadillac insurance plans, increase the Medicare payroll tax for the wealthy and mandate fees on medical industries.

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Joe Lieberman Vows to Say “No” to a Public Option

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

Healthcare reform’s worst news could be former vice presidential candidate Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), who is threatening to join a Republican filibuster should a public option in any form be included in the final legislation.  Senators possibly joining Lieberman in opposing a public option are Ben Nelson (D-NE), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA).  Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is exploring compromise measures with his 60-member caucus.

So opposed is Lieberman that he has vowed to filibuster the ultimate bill if it contains any form of public option.  This includes “the trigger” or “fallback” that is favored by Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME).  Under this plan, the trigger would let states opt out of a public plan.  Lieberman also opposes Senator Tom Carper’s (D-DE) “the hammer”, which would allow states to opt into a public plan.  Blue Dog Democrats like Landrieu have expressed some support for both “the trigger” and “the hammer”.

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) remains optimistic.  “I think that what happens is there are two weeks, three weeks, whatever, of debate.  Senator Lieberman, everybody gets a chance to offer amendments.  I don’t want four Democratic senators dictating to the other 56 of us and to the country, when the public option has this much support, that it’s not going to be in it,” he said, noting that a majority of the American people support a public option.  According to Brown, the four dissenters will “look at this bill in the end and say, I don’t think they want to be on the wrong side of history.  I don’t think they want to go back and say, you know, on a procedural vote, ‘I killed the most important bill in my political career.’  I don’t think they want to be there on that.  So I think in the end, we get them.”

Pat of the dilemma, the Democrats find themselves in is that two Democrats – Roland Burris and Bernie Sanders – have vowed not to vote for the bill if there’s no public option.

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Obama on Healthcare: “Now is the Season for Action”

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

obama_congress_480President Barack Obama’s prime-time speech to a joint session of Congress made a strong case for including a public option,  along with a combination of choices designed to keep the insurance industry in check.  Recalling Theodore Roosevelt’s efforts to reform healthcare during the 1912 election, Obama said “I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last. Well, the time for bickering is over.  The time for games has passed,” Obama said. “Now is the season for action.”

That action includes a provision that protects uninsurable individuals from catastrophic healthcare expenses.  Another proposal is a series of pilot programs that will study how to reform the medical tort process.

Following is a brief summary of the Obama healthcare plan, which has a projected price tag of just under $1 trillion over 10 years (as a point of comparison, the U.S. spends half this in a single year on military spending):

  • Healthcare reform will provide more security and stability to Americans who currently have insurance, and it will provide coverage to those who don’t. It will slow the growth of healthcare costs.
  • Americans who already have health insurance through their employers, Medicare, Medicaid, or the VA, will see their coverage improve. The plan will make it illegal to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions. Insurers will no longer be able to place a cap on the amount of coverage a patient receives. Additionally, insurance companies will be required to cover routine checkups and preventive care like mammograms and colonoscopies.
  • Coverage will be portable (if a person changes jobs or starts a small business) through the creation of an insurance exchange – a marketplace that will provide access to health insurance at competitive prices. The benefit to insurance companies is that the exchange lets them compete for millions of new customers.
  • For Americans who currently lack health insurance, Obama proposed a public option where government-subsidies would be available to make premiums affordable. Individuals would be required to obtain coverage, and their employers would have to contribute. Most Senate Republicans and some Blue Dog Democrats oppose this proposal, while Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has said that the House’s version of the healthcare bill will include a public option.

Obama’s flexibility may not please the more liberal members of Congress, but reflects the political reality that exists on Capitol Hill.

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