WASHINGTON – Rejecting Republican amendments, Democrats turned back GOP efforts to cast the health care overhaul as a tax hike on the middle class Thursday, as a crucial Senate panel aimed to wrap up debate on the measure by nightfall.
The outcome increasingly appeared inevitable with Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., declaring he had the votes for approval of the bill embracing President Barack Obama's priorities of extending coverage to the uninsured and holding down spiraling medical costs.
The final committee vote probably won't happen until next week so senators and the Congressional Budget Office have time to review the legislation. The full Senate and House are to take it up later this month.
The legislation would dramatically reshape the U.S. health care system, extending coverage to about 95 percent of Americans, making carrying insurance a requirement for the first time, providing subsidies to help poorer people buy health plans and barring insurance industry practices like dropping coverage for sick people.
A new purchasing exchange, or marketplace, would let people shop for and compare insurance plans that would be required to meet certain standards. Baucus' bill leaves out a new government-run insurance plan — opposed by Republicans — to compete with private companies.
However senators agreed Thursday to let state governments negotiate basic coverage plans for some lower-income people. The author of an amendment on that subject, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said it's a form of a public plan but would rely on the private sector and would result in more affordable coverage, a major concern for senators.
The measure would apply to people who make up to twice the federal poverty level — about $44,000 for a family of four — but make too much to qualify for Medicare. States could use federal subsidies to negotiate with private insurers to write coverage plans for those people.
The committee approved Cantwell's amendment 12 to 11.
Meanwhile Republicans argued on that taxes the bill proposes on people who don't comply with the new mandate to buy health insurance would break Obama's promise to shield families making under $250,000 a year from tax hikes. The fees could rise as high as $1,900 for households that don't buy coverage.
"There are going to be a lot of people whose taxes are increased by this legislation," said Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho. That would violate "the promise and the pledge the president has made to the American people," he contended.
Democrats replied that the bill actually amounted to a $40 billion tax cut for Americans over 10 years since it provides for credits to help lower income people buy coverage.
"This is a message amendment," said Baucus, contending that offerings by Crapo and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., were designed to make arguments against the bill, not improve it.
"What you're saying is you want to gut the president's program. More than that, you want to gut health reform," Baucus said.
The Crapo and Ensign amendments would have provided that individuals making less than $200,000 a year and families making less than $250,000 would be exempt from some of the fees in the bill. Both failed 12-11, with moderate Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas joining all 10 committee Republicans to vote "yes."
The back-and-forth came after Baucus opened the committee's seventh day of work by announcing he hoped to complete debate by the end of the day, opening the way for Democratic leaders to bring the historic legislation to the floors of both the House and Senate as early as mid-October.
Still, two weeks before the projected start of debate, key decisions are yet to be made.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid must decide, for example, whether to include a government insurance option, a provision sought by liberals who argue it would subject private insurers to much-needed competition.
Legislation that cleared the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee earlier in the year includes the so-called public option, but the Finance Committee twice rejected proposals along those lines this week. The Finance bill has nonprofit cooperatives instead.
"I favor a public option. We're going to do our very best to have a public option. But remember, a public option is a relative term," Reid, D-Nev., said Thursday. Several senators are floating compromises.
There is no uncertainty on the issue in the House, where Pelosi has said a public plan will be included in legislation that goes to the floor.
Democrats in both houses still are struggling to find ways to hold down the cost of the overhaul legislation while assuring quality health coverage for millions of lower-income individuals and families.
In the House, the issue has been the subject of closed-door negotiations in recent days, as Democratic leaders try to reduce the cost of their bill to the $900 billion over 10 years set by Obama.
In the Senate, Finance Committee Democrats worked privately on the same issue.
One proposal under consideration, advanced by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., would allow subsidies ticketed for lower-income uninsured to flow to the states. The states, in turn, would negotiate with private insurers to provide coverage for the target population.
Olympia Snowe of Maine is the only GOP Finance Committee senator whose vote is in doubt, and she has yet to tip her hand. While she has voted with Democrats on some key tests she has also sided with fellow Republicans on other contentious issues.
On Wednesday, Obama lobbied reluctant Democrats by phone to support the Finance Committee measure.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091001/ap_on_go_co/us_health_care_overhaul
Topic: Dems turn back GOP health bill tax amendments (Read 498 times)