Moderates Democrats uneasy with Medicare plan
Senate moderates who are the linchpin to passing a health care reform bill raised fresh worries Thursday about a proposed Medicare expansion, complicating Majority Leader Harry Reid’s hopes of putting together a filibuster-proof majority for the legislation in the coming days.
Two days ago, the Medicare proposal appeared to be the elusive bridge between liberals, who were being forced to give up a public health insurance option, and moderates, who said they couldn’t vote for a bill that included one.
But by Thursday, the shine had dimmed, as senators grew restless over a lack of information and declined to commit their votes until they could review the legislative language and the Congressional Budget Office cost estimate. Republicans also stepped up their criticism of the plan.
The three moderates — Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), whose votes could make or break health reform this year — expressed varying degrees of resistance to the Medicare idea.
Snowe said the Medicare expansion exacerbates an “already-serious problem,” with the low government reimbursement rates for doctors and hospitals that serve Medicare patients. It could force her to vote no, she said.
Lieberman indicated that he was growing “increasingly concerned” about the proposal.
And Nelson said allowing people ages 55 to 64 to purchase Medicare coverage could simply be an intermediate step on the way to an entirely government-run health care system — “which I do not like.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if this thing does not become a viable option,” Nelson said. “I think it is going to be the lesser of the popular things, but I am keeping an open mind.”
On the floor, Republican senators waved around a scathing editorial from The Washington Post, reading the headline several times throughout the day: “Medicare sausage? The emerging buy-in proposal could have unintended consequences.”
They seized upon one sentence in particular — that the proposal “is a far more dramatic step toward a single-payer system than lawmakers on either side realize.”
“I’m very puzzled ideas like this are being cooked up behind closed doors two weeks before Christmas, and we don’t know what they are,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.).
Reid will not release details — even to senators — until he receives the CBO analysis, which isn’t expected until early next week. At that point, Reid has less than two weeks to tweak the plan if the price tag is too high, brief his caucus, lock down the votes and clear a series of procedural hurdles for final passage.
The Medicare buy-in proposal has been kicked around policy circles for years, but it has been absent from the current health care debate. Democrats had become intimately familiar with the ins and outs, benefits and ramifications of the public option because it was all anybody talked about for the past year.
Senate moderates who are the linchpin to passing a health care reform bill raised fresh worries Thursday about a proposed Medicare expansion, complicating Majority Leader Harry Reid’s hopes of putting together a filibuster-proof majority for the legislation in the coming days.
Two days ago, the Medicare proposal appeared to be the elusive bridge between liberals, who were being forced to give up a public health insurance option, and moderates, who said they couldn’t vote for a bill that included one.
But by Thursday, the shine had dimmed, as senators grew restless over a lack of information and declined to commit their votes until they could review the legislative language and the Congressional Budget Office cost estimate. Republicans also stepped up their criticism of the plan.
The three moderates — Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), whose votes could make or break health reform this year — expressed varying degrees of resistance to the Medicare idea.
Snowe said the Medicare expansion exacerbates an “already-serious problem,” with the low government reimbursement rates for doctors and hospitals that serve Medicare patients. It could force her to vote no, she said.
Lieberman indicated that he was growing “increasingly concerned” about the proposal.
And Nelson said allowing people ages 55 to 64 to purchase Medicare coverage could simply be an intermediate step on the way to an entirely government-run health care system — “which I do not like.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if this thing does not become a viable option,” Nelson said. “I think it is going to be the lesser of the popular things, but I am keeping an open mind.”
On the floor, Republican senators waved around a scathing editorial from The Washington Post, reading the headline several times throughout the day: “Medicare sausage? The emerging buy-in proposal could have unintended consequences.”
They seized upon one sentence in particular — that the proposal “is a far more dramatic step toward a single-payer system than lawmakers on either side realize.”
“I’m very puzzled ideas like this are being cooked up behind closed doors two weeks before Christmas, and we don’t know what they are,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.).
Reid will not release details — even to senators — until he receives the CBO analysis, which isn’t expected until early next week. At that point, Reid has less than two weeks to tweak the plan if the price tag is too high, brief his caucus, lock down the votes and clear a series of procedural hurdles for final passage.
The Medicare buy-in proposal has been kicked around policy circles for years, but it has been absent from the current health care debate. Democrats had become intimately familiar with the ins and outs, benefits and ramifications of the public option because it was all anybody talked about for the past year.
Sources: Politico
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