Democrats Woo Abortion Foes In Push For Health Bill
House Democratic leaders late Friday were exploring the possibility of a deal with Abortion opponents that would clinch the final votes to pass major health care legislation, but they faced stiff resistance from lawmakers who support abortion rights.
It was not immediately clear if the bill could win approval without some concessions to Democrats seeking tighter abortion restrictions.
In similar late-hour wrangling in November, Representative Bart Stupak, Democrat of Michigan, succeeded in winning approval of tight limits on insurance coverage of abortions in the House health care bill.
Mr. Stupak has said he would oppose the current measure without similar limits. Other Democratic opponents of abortion have said they are satisfied with the language in the Senate bill that bans the use of federal money to pay for coverage of the procedure, and they have pledged support for the package, expected to come to a decisive vote in the House on Sunday.
Mr. Stupak introduced a resolution on Friday that would add tougher abortion restrictions to the bill after it is approved but before it is sent to the president — a technique typically used to make minor or technical changes with the consent of both chambers, an unlikely prospect.
“We don’t want another vote on abortion,” said Representative Diana DeGette, Democrat of Colorado and a champion of abortion rights, as she left a meeting Friday evening in the office of Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “We are not going to vote for a bill that restricts women’s right to choose beyond current law.”
The abortion issue was just one complication that Democratic leaders wrestled with on Friday. A dispute over Medicare payments rates also flared as rank-and-file lawmakers pored over the detailed legislative language released Thursday, and a handful of lawmakers said their states would be shortchanged by new provisions.
Still, Ms. Pelosi expressed confidence that the issues would be resolved. “When we bring the bill to the floor,” she said, “we will have a significant victory for the American people.”
Several previously uncommitted House Democrats announced Friday that they would support the bill. They included four who had opposed the legislation in the fall: Representatives John Boccieri of Ohio, Allen Boyd and Suzanne M. Kosmas of Florida and Scott Murphy of New York.
Republicans, meanwhile, readied for a ferocious floor fight. The House Republican leader, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, said he would demand that lawmakers call out their votes one by one in the chamber. Other Republicans said they would unleash every procedural weapon available to stop the bill.
The disputes over abortion and Medicare rates were among several fast-moving developments as the Democrats pressed toward a vote.
President Obama, making a quick trip to northern Virginia, rallied a crowd of 8,500 supporters at George Mason University. The White House also said he would meet with the House Democratic Caucus at the Capitol on Saturday afternoon.
“We are at the point where we are going to do something historic this weekend,” Mr. Obama told the cheering throng.
He continued: “Teddy Roosevelt, Republican, was the first to advocate that everybody get health care in this country. Every decade since, we’ve had presidents, Republicans and Democrats, from Harry Truman to Richard Nixon to J.F.K. to Lyndon Johnson to —” he paused, continuing, “Every single president has said we need to fix this system.”
The argument over geographic disparities in Medicare payments has percolated throughout the yearlong health care debate.
Representative Peter A. DeFazio, Democrat of Oregon, who voted in favor of the legislation in November, warned Friday that he would oppose the current bill unless it increased Medicare payments to states like his that provide high-quality care at relatively low cost. “It does not cost three times as much to do an appendectomy in Miami as it does in Portland,” Mr. DeFazio said. “This has to be fixed.”
Ms. Pelosi acknowledged the concerns at a news conference on Friday morning, and said party leaders would work to address them. Lawmakers from Iowa, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin have been meeting with her to reach an accord.
The growing rancor in the health care debate was illustrated by an extraordinary exchange on the House floor on Friday.
Representative Jason Chaffetz, a freshman Republican from Utah, raised the possibility that some lawmakers were “trading votes for jobs.” He cited a report that Representative Bart Gordon, Democrat of Tennessee, had been promised a job as NASA administrator and that another Tennessee Democrat, Representative John Tanner, wanted an appointment as ambassador to NATO in exchange for his vote.
The two men said the assertions were false.
“That offer was never made, and I would not accept it,” said Mr. Gordon, the chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, who announced Thursday that he would support the bill.
Mr. Tanner, who has not announced his position on the bill, said it was a sad day when such charges were repeated in the House chamber.
“To take an unsubstantiated, untrue total fabrication and to repeat it on this floor is, in my judgment, an affront to this institution,” he said.
Mr. Boccieri, a politically vulnerable freshman, announced his support at a news conference on the sun-drenched East Front of the Capitol, where he spoke about a constituent, Natoma Canfield, who had written a letter to Mr. Obama about how she could no longer afford her health insurance, prompting the president to visit Ohio on Monday.
Mr. Boccieri said her case brought back memories of standing at the foot of his mother’s bed as a small boy and being told that she had breast cancer.
“Thank God she had health insurance; she is living today, she is with us,” Mr. Boccieri said. “But I think what would have happened and what could happen to those 39,000 people in my Congressional district who don’t have health insurance.”
Mr. Boccieri noted that he has been warned his vote for the bill could cost him re-election in November. “If in this job I can save one life, one family, one person, one Natoma, this job is worth it,” he said.
Also on Friday, the American Medical Association announced what it described as “qualified support” for the bill. Dr. J. James Rohack, the association’s president, said the bill would improve the lives of millions by “extending health coverage to the vast majority of the uninsured.”
Doctors said they were deeply disappointed that the bill would not repeal the formula used to calculate Medicare payments to doctors. Under that, doctors face a 21 percent cut in Medicare payments next month, with smaller cuts in the next few years.
House Democratic leaders have assured doctors that they will continue pressing for legislation to eliminate the cuts. Republicans insist that Congress find a way to cover the cost, which could exceed $200 billion over 10 years.
The health care bill would extend coverage to 32 million people at cost of $940 billion over 10 years, with the expense more than offset by revenues from new taxes and fees and reductions in government spending, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. It would reduce future deficits by $138 billion, the budget office said.
AARP, the lobby for older Americans, reiterated its support for the legislation on Friday.
“We believe this legislation brings us so much closer to helping millions of older Americans get quality, affordable health care,” Bonnie M. Cramer, the chairwoman of the group’s board, said in a statement.
Aides to the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said he would attend the meeting between Mr. Obama and House Democrats on Saturday, to help reassure the House members that Senate Democrats were committed to quickly taking up final revisions, perhaps next week.
Sources: Fox News, NY Times, Youtube
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