Reid: Obama pledges to help pass health reform. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says that President Obama pledged to work with Senate Democrats to help pass a health care overhaul, in their closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill. Watch his news conference.
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Republicans: Heath care bill "Partisan". Senate Republican leaders say President Obama's health care overhaul has become a closed-door, partisan effort that is aiding drug companies and other medical providers. Watch their news conference.
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Chances shrink for pure Public Option
Senate Democrats in search of a health reform compromise Sunday zeroed in on a new alternative to a government-run insurance plan – signaling that the chances a final bill will include a pure public option are diminishing.
The new idea — for the government to create a national health insurance plan similar to the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan – seemed to gather momentum as the weekend went on, and the differences between liberals and moderates on the public option became even clearer.
The proposal would take the place of a new government insurance plan currently included in the Senate version of the bill, according to officials involved with the negotiations.
The plan would be administered by the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the federal plan for members of Congress, and all of the insurance options would be not-for-profit offered by private companies.
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), a public option opponent who is participating in the talks, said the new proposal would do away with the government insurance program in Majority Leader Harry Reid’s current bill, which allows states to “opt-out” of a public option.
“Seems to me it would be in lieu of the public option,” Nelson said. He also said Reid’s “opt-out” idea “is no longer being talked about.”
If the Senate goes in this direction, the challenge for Reid (D-Nev.) is framing this alternative as an acceptable compromise for progressives. Politically, the idea holds appeal for moderates, who have opposed establishing a new government insurance plan, but might also satisfy liberal demands for more choice and competition to private insurers.
“The proposal under consideration can be said to provide access to the same type of insurance plans that members of Congress and federal employees get. People think of that as government health insurance; progressives could portray this in the same vein,” said a Democratic Senate aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations. “But moderates can simultaneously point to the fact that the government isn’t the payer and say competition was enhanced without growing the government.”
That feature – that the plan would offer policies similar to those members of Congress get – could prove a potent selling point for members of Congress to their constituents back home.
Progressive senators emerged from a three-hour negotiating session Sunday night declining to comment. Asked if the public option has been taken off the table, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) said: “I’m not going to respond to that one.” Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) would say only that he was hopeful a deal could be reached Monday.
Aides familiar with the negotiations said the meetings are not focused solely on the public option, and that senators who want the public option are seeking other concessions, including stronger regulation of the insurance industry.
There is also discussion of including a public option "fallback" provision, which would trigger a government health plan if private insurers did not choose to take part in the program — an unlikely outcome.
Jacob Hacker, a Yale University professor who originated the public option concept, posted a blog item on The New Republic website titled “You Call This a Compromise?” He said the latest crop of alternatives, including the plan modeled after the federal employees’ health program, represent “abandonment of the public option altogether.” It appears to be nothing more than a new kind of insurance exchange, which is already in the bill, he said.
And Timothy Jost, a health-law expert at Washington and Lee University School of Law, wrote on POLITICO’s Arena that replicating the federal employees’ health plan “was the dumbest idea yet.” Nonprofit insurance plans currently dominate the market, and they haven’t reduced the cost of insurance, he wrote.
The group directed their staff to work through the night on the proposals in preparation for what could be a key meeting Monday afternoon.
“You have people of very diverse and strong views who are making a real effort to come together,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), a public-option supporter who has become an intermediary between liberals and moderates. “But people have strong views and we’ll have to see where people end up.”
Progressives are represented by Feingold, Harkin, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.). The moderate side is represented by Nelson, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Sen. Thomas Carper (D-Del.), and Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.).
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), a public option opponent, did not attend the meeting but his staff was present.
The group came together only in the last few days, representing the first time in the months-long process that key liberals and moderates sat at the same table.
Earlier Sunday, President Barack Obama paid a rare weekend visit to the Senate as the talks heated up. Obama and Vice President Joe Biden called on Senate Democrats to set aside differences and pass legislation by the end of the year. “They’re doing great; they’re going to get it done,” Obama said as he departed the 45-minute closed-door meeting in the Mansfield Room.
On Sunday night, with progress being reported, the senators ordered Chinese food from Schumer’s favorite restaurant, Hunan Dynasty on Capitol Hill, and at one point, they turned on the Giants-Cowboys game. Senators later attributed raucous applause heard from the hallway to the football game, not a sudden breakthrough in the talks.
Reid said he had personally asked five moderates and five progressives to work things out on the issues that they care about, including the public option and small business coverage. “Progress is being made, and that’s not just talk. We’ve made a lot of progress,” Reid said.
“There are still a few things we have to work out [in] the bill, and the issues are being narrowed as we speak. We’re working toward a consensus. We’re not there, but we understand how important it is that we arrive at a consensus, and we’re going to do that just as quickly as we can.”
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said there are several options on the table that liberal and conservative Democrats are considering in order to strike a deal on the public insurance option in the health care debate — and that negotiations are still ongoing.
And Durbin, who is a big supporter of the public option, is very much open to striking a deal.
“I’m looking for an alternative that creates competition for the health insurance companies,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Reflecting on the moment, Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) said that Democrats should be able to get a bill done when they have a Democratic president and a pair of congressional majorities. “We've got to get this done in order to demonstrate we can get something this substantial done, even in a difficult economy and a difficult political environment,” he said.
Reid doesn’t have much wiggle room if he expects to finish the bill by Christmas.
Under the best-case scenario, Reid could reach a tentative deal on the public option during the first half of the week and send the revised plan to the Congressional Budget Office for a cost estimate, which is likely to take several days.
Once he receives the estimate, Reid would seek firm commitments on votes, which he will want to lock in before taking the procedural steps necessary to cut off debate on the bill. Aides say the goal is to start taking those procedural steps by the end of this week.
Democrats would then need to hold together 60 senators on three procedural votes and three votes on the bill. The votes could unfold over a roughly nine-day period, ending just before the Christmas break.
Democrats remain seriously concerned about Nelson, who is considered less likely by Senate aides to vote for the bill than are Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Lieberman, whose interests align more closely with the caucus. As long as the public option is sufficiently tailored to their liking, Snowe and Lieberman can likely be persuaded, aides said.
Snowe met with Obama on Saturday, and the two discussed her “trigger” proposal, under which a public option would kick in if private insurers didn’t adequately expand coverage. Snowe also met with moderate Democrats on the floor, and they plan to continue talks Monday. Snowe, however, is not part of the talks among Democratic liberals and moderates
Nelson is a tougher case. He has not only taken an uncompromising position on abortion, demanding stronger language to prohibit federal funding of abortion. He has also voted against all but one Democratic amendment so far, aside from those that received unanimous support from the body. Nelson’s voting record on the bill suggests a general dislike for key aspects of it.
Nelson’s position could become clearer after an expected vote this week on his anti-abortion amendment. Nelson has said he will not compromise, but he also signaled Friday that he wouldn’t do so until after the vote.
With Nelson as a wild card, the need to win over Snowe and Lieberman become all the more important — and that means progressives will be asked to make serious concessions on the public plan.
Obama’s visit came ahead of a busy time in his schedule that could make another Capitol Hill visit difficult, with a pair of trips to Europe for the Nobel Peace Prize and the Copenhagen climate summit. Then he’s scheduled to depart for Hawaii shortly before Christmas.
Despite repeated calls from lawmakers for more direction, Obama has picked his spots over the last 11 months. He has taken significant steps – a visit to the Hill, a major speech, a private meeting at the White House – only when he and his aides considered them necessary.
But given the decisions Reid needs to make in the coming days, Sunday may prove to be a pivotal moment.
Along with Obama and Biden were Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton, senior adviser David Axelrod, health care “czar” Nancy-Ann DeParle, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, and chief legislative liaison Phil Schiliro.
The only speakers, senators said after, were the president and Reid.
“We're really pretty much staying out,” said Sebelius when asked if the administration would take a side on the negotiations over the public option. “The discussions are really among the members of the Senate.”
Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) said Obama “said it would be the greatest legislation since FDR passed Social Security."
Lieberman, who is open to supporting the bill so long as it does not include a public option, noted that Obama didn’t bring up the idea: “He didn't. I don't think he once talked about the public option. He didn't. That's what I'm saying. I thought it was interesting.”
Reid, asked about the comment, responded, “the President didn't say a lot of things. Senator Lieberman said that to me after the meeting also, but that doesn't mean it's not an issue because the President didn't talk about it.”
But Lieberman said even the benefits of health reform legislation wouldn’t outweigh his concerns about a public option enough to vote for the bill if that provision stays in.
“No!” Lieberman told reporters. “That’s exactly what I’ve been saying to my colleagues who are pushing for the public option. This bill has so much good in it, and it does so much good — it’s deficit neutral and all the rest. Why are you insisting on getting a foot in the door for single-payer?”
Sources: Politico, MSNBC
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