Posts Tagged ‘public option’
Monday, February 1st, 2010
Some Democrats think legislating in baby steps to achieve healthcare reform is their best option now that the party has lost its 60-vote super majority with Scott Brown’s upset victory in Massachusetts to fill Senator Ted Kennedy’s seat.
According to Representative Bill Pascrell, Jr., (D-NJ), some House Democrats are proposing an incremental approach to fix the healthcare system via multiple pieces of legislation instead of a single all-encompassing bill. The goal would remain to reform insurance coverage, assure patients’ rights and improve the way that healthcare is delivered. Pascrell envisions introducing three or four bills in quick succession. The legislation would encompass the least controversial elements of the broader reform package now stalled in Congress.
Pascrell believes that his measures might garner some Republican support because they would eliminate the public option, individual insurance mandates and entitlement programs. Pascrell notes that “You can blame the Senate all you want, but we are our own worst enemy. We do everything in mega-fashion. We need to do it in mini-fashion.”
Tags: 60 vote super majority, Bill Pascrell Jr, Democrats, entitlement programs, filibuster, healthcare reform, House of Representatives, individual insurance mandates, public option, Republicans, Scott Brown, Ted Kennedy
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Thursday, January 7th, 2010
Why did Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) threaten to filibuster and insist on dropping the public option and a Medicare buy-in for people aged 55 - 64 in the healthcare reform bill? Even more puzzling is the fact that Lieberman had supported a public option as recently as this past September. Lieberman, who may classify as a liberal, is pro-choice and supports some gay rights, angered Democrats in his home state of Connecticut when he openly campaigned for Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin in the 2008 presidential election.
In The Guardian, Chris McGreal writes that “Now, in the view of some, he is plumbing new depths of betrayal by using his deciding vote as an independent member of the Senate to hold hostage Barack Obama’s reform of America’s dysfunctional healthcare system. Lieberman’s tactics have upset Democratic party members of Congress who are asking why a popular president’s agenda is being stalled by a senator who has repeatedly turned his back on his old party.”
Critics see Lieberman’s opposition to the public option as a result of his acceptance of approximately $1 million in campaign donations from the medical insurance industry - many of which are headquartered in his home state — over his 21-year Senate career. Lieberman’s wife, Hadassah, works for a lobbying firm as its health and pharmaceutical specialist. Her previous employers include big pharma companies Pfizer and Hoffmann-LaRoche. Lieberman’s supporters thought he was “genuinely an independent” who agrees “more often than not with Democrats on domestic policy. I agree more often than not with Republicans on foreign and defense policy,” Lieberman once told Fox News.
According to McGreal, “Detractors paint a picture of a vain, bitter man still stung by his rejection by Democratic voters who came close to scuppering his Senate career three years ago and now reveling in the power he wields to block Obama’s first piece of major legislation.” Lieberman says he is not acting out of spite. “That’s just poppycock,” he said. “If I had any sense of vendetta against the Democratic party, I wouldn’t be in the Democratic caucus today.”
Tags: filibuster, Hadassah Lieberman, healthcare reform, insurance industry, John McCain, Joseph Lieberman, pfizer, President Barack Obama, public option, Sarah Palin, Senate
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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.
Tags: Blue Dog Democrats, Cadillac insurance plans, Democrats, Healthcare, House of Representatives, Medicaid, Medicare, President Barack Obama, public option, Republican, Senate, Senator Ben Nelson, Senator Blanche Lincoln, Senator Charles Schumer, Senator Harry Reid, Senator Olympia Snowe
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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.
Tags: Blue Dog Democrats, filibuster, healthcare reform, Joe Lieberman, Mary Landrieu, Michael Steele, Olympia Snowe, President Barack Obama, public option, Senator Harry Reid, Tom Carper
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Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
The public’s support for the public option in healthcare reform is on the upswing, as the Senate debates whether to include such a plan in the ultimate healthcare overhaul bill. According to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, fully 57 percent of Americans favor a public option, a rise from the 52 percent reported in August. Even so, the statistic is below the 62 percent approval rating the public option received in June.
At present, the Senate is working to reconcile the Finance Committee’s healthcare bill and the Health Committee’s legislation. Only the Health Committee’s legislation includes a public option, which President Obama favors but has said is not a requirement. The public option is a bone of contention in the healthcare reform process, and has strong opposition from Republicans who believe it could drive private insurers from the marketplace and result in a single-payer system.
Patients First, a conservative group, believes the poll’s methodology is flawed. According to Phil Kerpen, the group’s policy director, “The poll is a mirage designed to create the illusion of a groundswell of support for government-forced healthcare when no such support exists. The poll reflects the political aspirations of a few peddlers of failed big-government ideas, not the common sense wishes of the American people.”
President Obama has said he wants to sign healthcare reform legislation by Christmas.
Tags: healthcare reform, House of Representatives, Patients First, President Barack Obama, public option, Senate, Senate Finance Committee, Senate Health Committee, Senator Harry Reid, Senator Max Baucus
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Monday, November 30th, 2009
Corporate giants like Verizon, JPMorgan, General Electric and Wal-Mart are lining up in opposition to the inclusion of a public option in healthcare reform legislation now under consideration in the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Business Roundtable, comprised of large companies that in aggregate employ more than 12 million Americans, accuse the federal government of inefficiency and charge that it would underpay healthcare providers. Additionally, the Business Roundtable claims that a public option will increase prices for private insurers and employers.
By contrast, President Barack Obama believes that a government alternative will force private insurers to offer more competitive pricing. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said his bill includes a public option that is an alternative to policies sold by private insurers. States will have the ability to opt out from offering the plan.
“A public plan would neither manage cost nor encourage innovation,” said Antonio Perez, chief executive of Eastman Kodak and head of the Business Roundtable’s healthcare group. “We believe it is the wrong direction for fixing our healthcare system.” Other business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are sponsoring national television ads in seven states opposing the public option. The chamber prefers a national exchange “with an Orbitz-like website” that compares deals offered by various private providers.
Tags: Business Roundtable, healthcare reform, House of Representatives, President Barack Obama, public option, Senate, Senator Harry Reid, US Chamber of Commerce
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Monday, October 26th, 2009
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has reported that the Senate Finance Committee healthcare reform bill would cost $829 billion over 10 years and reduce the deficit by $81 billion. This report on the bill, which would cover 94 percent of Americans, could bolster President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform initiative. As authored by Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) and amended by committee members, the bill would fulfill Obama’s preference for healthcare reform legislation that does not increase the deficit.
The Finance Committee is expected to vote on the plan, which does not include the public option that Obama and liberals want, next Tuesday. Instead, the Baucus bill proposes a nonprofit cooperative as an alternative, an option that the CBO report noted was unlikely to attract significant enrollment or spend all the subsidies allocated to it. All three House of Representatives committee bills include a public option, as does legislation passed by the Senate Health Committee.
Once the Democratic-controlled Finance Committee bill is approved, it will be merged with the Health Committee legislation and sent to the full Senate for debate later this month. In the House of Representatives, Democrats are holding meetings to merge their three healthcare reform bills into a single one that could win the 218 votes necessary for passage.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said the CBO news on costs is “irrelevant” because he believes that Democrats will pump up the Baucus bill to make it more expensive.
Tags: Congressional Budget Office, deficit, Democrats, healthcare reform, House of Representatives, Max Baucus, President Barack Obama, public option, Senate Finance Committee
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Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
Healthcare reform is putting Democrats at loggerheads with each other, as the party’s liberal wing failed to include a public option in legislation now being negotiated in the Senate Finance Committee. The two failed votes (which saw some Democrats cross the aisle to vote with Republicans) were a victory for Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), whose committee is trying to finalize the proposed legislation. At the same time, Democrats in the House of Representatives were looking at ways to trim approximately $900 billion over 10 years from their legislation, President Obama’s suggested price tag.
Baucus and four other Democrats voted against Senator Jay Rockefeller’s (D-WV) amendment to include a public option in the proposed bill. “The public option would help to hold insurance companies’ feet to the fire, I don’t think there’s much doubt about that, but my first job is to get this bill across the finish line,” Baucus said. “No one shows me how to get 60 votes with a public option.”
The second failed amendment was a proposal from Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), designed to increase competition into the insurance market. This amendment would have let the government negotiate payments with physicians, hospitals and other healthcare providers for two years rather than pay them at Medicare rates.
Advocates of the public option believe that private insurers are placing profits before coverage and vowed to insert this amendment into the legislation once the full Senate votes on healthcare reform. “With some work and some compromise, we can get the 60 votes on the floor of the Senate that will make our system better by providing for a strong, fair and viable public option,” Schumer said.
Tags: Democrats, healthcare reform, House of Representatives, Max Baucus, President Barack Obama, public option, Senate Finance Committee
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Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
Congressional Democrats are mulling a tax on high-cost insurance plans to pay for overhauling the nation’s healthcare delivery system. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) says that such a tax is “under consideration” as Democrats seek consensus before bringing a bill to the House floor this fall.
“We just have to see how much money we need for what,” according to Pelosi. “And if we’re taking the bill down in cost, there are other provisions in the Senate bill that bend the (costs) curve that might be more palatable.” A House tax option likely would be a scaled-down version of the one Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) has proposed.
The Democratic House plan wants to increase taxes on upper-income people to pay for covering the uninsured. Baucus wants to tax high-cost “Cadillac” insurance plans often valued at more than $8,000 for an individual and $21,000 for a family and which may have no deductibles or co-payments. Those in favor of the tax, which President Obama supports, believe it will reduce healthcare costs by persuading people to become more cost-conscious consumers.
The insurance tax should reduce the cost of the House’s healthcare reform bill. How to pay for the plan is just one issue that House leaders are trying to settle as they work to merge three committee-approved bills into one piece of legislation. The major issue is that the House Democrats’ 10-year bill costs $1 trillion-plus, higher than the $900 billion that President Obama prefers. Although House Democrats realize that cuts are required, they want to protect the subsidies that will help low-income Americans purchase coverage. Unfortunately, the subsidies are the most expensive part of the legislation.
Tags: Democrats, healthcare reform, House of Representatives, insurance coverage, labor union, Nancy Pelosi, President Obama, public option, Senate committee
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Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
Senator Max Baucus’ (D-MT) long-awaited centrist healthcare reform bill was met with strong objections by both liberal Democrats (who decried the lack of a public option) and Republicans (who oppose any expanded government role in healthcare).
Still, the Baucus proposal could serve as a blueprint for the ultimate compromise healthcare legislation that President Obama calls the “defining struggle of this generation” when it finally emerges from Congress. Baucus’ proposal would expand consumer protections and require that all Americans have medical insurance with the government providing financial help to pay premiums for low- and middle-income people. Insurers would no longer be able to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions or cancel policies after people get sick. The Baucus bill would create private healthcare insurance cooperatives, which centrist Democrats prefer in place of the public option supported by liberals.
Despite tailoring his proposal to cost less and limit government involvement in healthcare,Baucus’ proposal is unlikely to win much support from Republican Senators. According to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), “Americans don’t think a bigger role for government in healthcare would improve the system. Yet despite this, every proposal we’ve seen would lead to a vast expansion of the government’s role in the healthcare system.”
The Baucus bill is unpopular with liberal Democrats who insist that a public option be included in any healthcare reform legislation. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House bill, drafted by Democrats, was superior and “clearly does more to make coverage affordable for more Americans.” The Congressional Budget Office said the expansion of coverage would cost $774 billion over 10 years, compared with price tags of more than $1 trillion for the other measures.
Tags: affordable healthcare, Democrats, health insurance, healthcare reform, Max Baucus, Nancy Pelosi, President Obam, private healthcare, public option, Republicans
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