Rangel: Lawmakers writing compromise health bill - AP

[steve2470]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/02/AR2010020203703.html

WASHINGTON -- Leading lawmakers hoping to revive President Barack Obama's stalled health care overhaul have started writing a compromise bill, but it's unclear when the legislation will be ready for votes, a top House Democrat said Tuesday.

The measure would change the massive Senate-approved health bill to what bargainers from the White House, Senate and House agreed to last month, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said in a brief interview.

Rangel's remarks, if borne out, could be the first concrete sign that Democrats will try enacting major health legislation in the wake of the Republican upset in a Massachusetts special election that cost them their crucial 60th Senate seat. Stunned by that setback, the White House and top Democrats have been conceding that they no longer know if they have the votes to pass health legislation, or what such a bill would look like.

In January, White House and congressional negotiators agreed to ease a Senate-approved tax on high-cost health insurance plans opposed by unions and many House Democrats. They also planned to remove a Senate provision having the federal government fully pay for an expansion of Medicaid coverage solely for Nebraska, one of whose senators, Democrat Ben Nelson, was the crucial 60th vote for the Senate bill at the time.

more at link above

[Pirate Smile]

1. It is the Reconcilliation Bill if anyone wasn't clear. It isn't a brand new Bill.

"The measure Rangel discussed would be a so-called reconciliation bill, a seldom-used procedure that only requires a simple majority of votes for Senate passage. He said he believed both chambers could muster the votes needed for passage, despite virtually unanimous GOP opposition.

Meanwhile, the House plans to vote next week on a small element of the massive health bill it approved in November stripping insurance companies of their decades-old exemption from certain federal antitrust laws, according to Nadeam Elshami, spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Industry analysts see the effort as largely symbolic as courts have long allowed federal regulators to intervene when competition could be jeopardized.

Also Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., emerged from a separate meeting with Pelosi to say no decisions had been made about the health bill. Reid said a scenario in which the House produces a reconciliation package "seems like a strong possibility," but is not the only option.

In a separate interview, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who was Obama's first pick to lead the health care effort, said he thinks Democrats are back on track to finishing a bill. "

[jenmito]

2. Chris Matthews said the same thing tonight-said he has "intelligence" (sources) on this saying

that the House WILL pass the Senate bill as long as the changes are made, and it will be done in Feb. That they are letting it stew for a couple weeks so that the congressmen have time to realize how bad it would be for them to NOT pass a bill. The issue is the order in which it will happen-Senate first or House first. :thumbsup:

[Jennicut]

3. I so hope this happens.

Keeping my fingers crossed.