Senate Panel Nearing Accord; Vote on Bill Could Happen Before Aug. 7 Recess

[Faygo Kid]

Source: Washington Post

An emerging consensus among a bipartisan group of senators is poised to shift the dynamic in the congressional debate over health-care reform, and could lead to a final product that sheds many of the priorities that President Obama has emphasized and that have drawn GOP attacks.

Three Democrats and three Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee are expected to wrap up their arduous multi-week talks in the coming days, and Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said he anticipates a panel vote before the Senate recess, which will begin Aug. 7.

Assuming the fragile committee coalition holds, the legislation it produces would scramble the reform landscape by introducing policy ideas that have their origins in the political center. The bill is bound to disappoint liberals. But with prominent GOP backing, it also could prove more difficult for Republicans to reject out of hand the approach they have taken to the House bill and a second Senate version, written by the health committee.

The finance panel's legislation is expected to include incentives for employers to provide health insurance for their workers, rather than a more punitive coverage mandate. The committee is also likely to endorse narrowly targeted tax increases, rejecting a controversial tax surcharge on wealthy households that the House adopted and limits on deductions for upper-income taxpayers that Obama is seeking. . .

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/28/AR2009072803173.html?hpid=topnews

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So that's it. The rich keep every dime of their Bush tax cuts, pay nothing towards this, and this "reform" is funded instead by slashing Medicare beneficiary benefits, which are already at the breaking point.

Figures. Plus, no doubt, mandatory insurance for 20 somethings with lip service about age rating and pre-existing conditions, but the insurance industry gets everybody in the pool without covering us all, and finding no problemo in denying a 58 year old with a pre-existing condition. Or imposing a $1,000 per month premium with an $8,000 deductible, just to save face. Sweet deal.

[rockymountaindem]

1. That's fine. None of this matters right now.

The finance cmte. is only one of multiple committees putting bills forward. They will all have to be reconciled and a public option is in all the other versions at this point, IIRC. We need to see what happens after the conference committee and take the long view.

[alfredo]

7. That's why I am not so freaked out over the finance committee.

I heard a great idea on Countdown: allow family members of veterans to enroll for VA benefits. I'd love to have my wife enrolled.

[AlbertCat]

13. I heard a great idea on Countdown:

I'm pushing my idea of a Healthcare Exchange Option where you get to exchange your healthcare for a Congress Repug's or Blue Dog's. The senator or rep gets your healthcare and you get his!

[alfredo]

14. That's kind of like making those who want war, fight the war.

[bluestateguy]

2. The Bush tax cuts for the well off are expiring anyway in October 2010

That is part of the budget process, which is separate from this other process.

The bill can always be amended on the floor and/or in conference committee. I'm not happy either, but maybe the thing to do is to get this bill out of Max Baucus's hands and out of his committee--even if it's a flawed bill--and fix it on the floor or in conference committee.

[tomm2thumbs]

4. +1

yup yup

[Hekate]

8. Bush rich tax cuts expiring in 14 months? VERY key point. Thanks for making it clear. nt

[MasonJar]

3. Nothing without a public option is reform. In fact the only sensible option

is single payer. If Obama falls for this just so he can claim a healthcare bill, he is not ever getting my vote again. This is Baucus and his corporate bosses. NNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Baucus should be shut down by his own consttituents during August. He probably doesn't care if he loses re-election. I am sure he has a big payday coming in the near future. And, by the way, Baucus, we do NOT need bipartinship anymore. Just dems with a conscience and an ear to what the people they are supposed to represent want. If dems are just as slimy as the GOPers, who cares who sins...oops, little slip of the pen...I meant wins.

[FVZA_Colonel]

5. One will hope Obama will reject this, if it doesn't include a public one.

Even with one I wouldn't like it, but I could accept it as a start. I honestly don't think he will, and it is only one version among many.

[Divine Discontent]

6. Great point! Even if it somehow were the bill to pass, or close to it, I hope he'd veto it.

A PUBLIC OPTION for anyone wanting to join in it, is a necessity for true reform - can't wait for half of America to say a big ol' F U to for profit insurance coverage, instead of something close to universal health care.

[bkkyosemite]

9. sign the petition on front page please.

[Divine Discontent]

10. thanks! kick!

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. I'll never understadn the logic whereby a public option draws so much turmoil and resistance

and yet people think that single-payer is even moderately doable. If the public option can't even get through committee, then a fortiori single-payer would be dead on arrival. Its like saying "Oh look, the supermarket didn't give me a free sample, so maybe they should give me all my groceries for free!" If you can't even get a free sample, on what planet would you get the whole damn grocery cart?

Oh, I know what they say. The bolder the proposal, the more likely it is to pass. This is nonsense. Here's the state of affairs. You will NEVER get a single-payer system until you demonstrate with ten or more years of evidence that a public system works. That is why the insurance companies are fighting tooth and nail against the public option. They know that once it is demonstrated to be effective, single-payer appears as a realistic option on the horizon. But not before then. It is politically unacceptable before then. I hate that like poison, since single-payer is the only reasonable way to handle health care in a mature industrial society. But it is not available. It just isn't. You have to show and prove with a public option FIRST. Our enemies sure know this. Why don't we?

[sutz12]

11. "Origins in the political center" --my ass...

This is coming from the far right.

Blue Dogs are in no way progressive on this issue. No way.