Democrats Taking Aim At Deficit Targets

Posted by AMS at 24 MAR 12:56 pm

Democrats Take Aim At Deficit Targets, Continue To Wait For CBO Numbers On Health Overhaul

18 Mar 2010 Source: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation

The Wall Street Journal: “With Congress just days away from an expected vote, Democrats still hadn’t settled on final language of the bill and until they do the Congressional Budget Office can’t release an estimate for how much the complete package would cost.” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D., Md.) said yesterday that “he hoped Democratic leaders would be able to lock down final details soon. He said lawmakers have been working closely with the Congressional Budget Office to ensure the bill is fully paid for and reduces the deficit” (Hitt, 3/17).

Bloomberg/Business Week: “They have been going back and forth with CBO officials for days, (Senate Majority Leader Harry) Reid said. ‘It’s not as if CBO has been over there waiting to crank up their adding machines,’ Reid told reporters. ‘They’ve been giving us numbers all along, trying to come up with a final product. And we expect that soon’” (Rowley and Gaouette, 3/17).

The New York Times: “House Democratic leaders said they still expected the full House to vote on health care by this weekend, even though they are still tinkering with the text of the legislation” and are trying to hold the cost of new insurance coverage provisions to $950 billion over 10 years. “To make the numbers come out right, Democrats said, they are considering bigger cuts in payments to private Medicare Advantage plans, which cover about one-fourth of the 45 million Medicare beneficiaries. And they may ask pharmaceutical companies to pay more to help close a gap in Medicare coverage of prescription drugs” (Herszenhorn and Pear, 3/16).

(Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) Sun Sentinel, with more on the expected cuts to Medicare Advantage plans: “‘We’ve come up with something that we believe is equitable that does phase the payments down but does it in such a way that is not disruptive to beneficiaries who have been getting the extra benefits,’ said Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform. DeParle briefed reporters Tuesday about this and other adjustments to health care overhaul legislation that is headed toward conclusive votes in the House this week. … She did not specify those changes, which are expected to be unveiled as early as Wednesday.” Officials say Advantage plans cost an average of 14 percent more than regular Medicare plans (Gibson, 3/16).

The Washington Post: The bill is being held up by “concerns that it would do too little to reduce the nation’s budget deficit.” Democrats hope to unveil the package Wednesday and to vote on the measure Saturday. “‘It is very important to us that this legislation be fiscally sound – that is, save $100 billion in the first 10 years and $1 trillion in the second 10 years. That is our goal,’ (House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi said. ‘We want to come as close to that as possible. In fact, we insist that we will. … The numbers have to add up to drastic deficit reduction as we go forward.’” The bill must reduce the deficit by $2 billion over the next five years because Democrats are using budget reconciliation to pass it to avoid a Republican filibuster. Democrats are trying to raise money by raising Medicare taxes on the wealthy “(b)ut virtually everything House Democrats want to achieve in their package costs money. Meanwhile, House leaders want to dramatically scale back one of the most powerful deficit-reduction tools in the Senate bill: a 40 percent excise tax on high-cost insurance policies” (Montgomery, 3/17).

CongressDaily: “House Majority Leader Hoyer declined to comment on whether more pay-fors might be needed, including on a question as to whether the excise tax on high-cost ‘Cadillac’ plans would start earlier than 2018. Unions pushed for the 2018 start date and President Obama included it in his proposal for changes that would be made to the Senate-passed overhaul bill.” Pelosi said members will have 72 hours to read the bill before a vote (Edney, 3/17).

Roll Call: Senate Democrats plan to have a special health care caucus meeting Wednesday to discuss the overhaul. “One senior Senate Democratic aide cautioned that the 12:30 p.m. meeting is not intended to provide Senators with an awaited Congressional Budget Office cost estimate of the reconciliation measure, saying it was merely an ‘update’ for Members on where leaders are in the process” (Pierce, 3/16).

Landmark Health Care Bill Close

Posted by AMS at 21 MAR 9:49 pm

By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama and House Democratic leaders struck a last-minute deal Sunday with abortion foes to secure the final few votes needed to remake America’s health care system, writing a climactic chapter in a century-old quest for near universal coverage.

The House argued its way through a thicket of Republican objections toward an evening vote on the bill to extend coverage to 32 million Americans who lack it, ban insurers from denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions and cut deficits by an estimated $138 billion over a decade.

Passage of a central health care bill already cleared by the Senate would send it to Obama for his signature. That still would leave one more step, a companion package of changes that would go to the Senate.

The stakes could not have been higher for Obama’s presidency. Obama has made health care reform the defining issue of his first year in office. Republicans hoped that by blocking the legislation, they would be able to thwart Obama’s ambitious domestic agenda, including immigration reform and climate change legislation.

While national health care has long been a goal of presidents stretching back decades, it has proved elusive, in part because self-reliance and suspicion of a strong central government remain strong in the U.S.

A shouting band of protesters outside the Capitol dramatized their opposition, and one man stood up in the House visitor’s gallery shouting, “Kill the bill” before he was ushered out – evidence of the passions the yearlong debate over health care has stirred.

Obama lobbied by phone from the White House, then took the crucial step of issuing an executive order that satisfied a small group of Democrats who demanded that no federal funds be used for elective abortions.

“We’re well past 216″ votes, a majority needed for passage, said Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak, swinging behind the bill after leading the anti-abortion holdouts in a rebellion that had left the outcome in doubt.

Democratic aides confirmed his vote count.

Obama, on the verge of securing one of the most significant legislative triumphs in decades, planned to make a statement to the nation Sunday night after the House takes its final vote on the health care legislation.

After more than a year of political combat – certain to persist into the fall election campaign for control of Congress – debate on the House floor fell along predictable lines.

“The public has been grievously and purposely lied to,” by Republicans in their efforts to defeat the legislation, said Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter, a clear reference to Republican accusations that included the claim that there would be death panels for elderly patients.

Republicans opposed the measure as a takeover of government health care that would cut Medicare for the elderly and raise taxes by nearly $1 trillion combined. Republican Rep. David Dreier criticized the Democrats for their tactics on the House floor, but said, “the greatest outrage has always been for the bill itself.”

Over and over, Democrats stressed the historic nature of the day. The measure represents the biggest expansion of the social safety net since Medicare and Medicaid were enacted in 1965 during President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration to provide government-funded health care coverage to the elderly and poor.

“Health care isn’t only a civil right, it’s a moral issue,” said Democratic Rep. Patrick Kennedy. He said his late father, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, had worked his entire career for nationwide health care, and President John F. Kennedy before him.

Slaughter, read a message President Franklin Roosevelt sent Congress in 1939 urging lawmakers to address the needs of those without health care, and said Democrat Harry Truman and Republican Richard Nixon had also sought to broaden health insurance coverage.

Obama has said often that presidents of both parties have tried without success to achieve national health insurance, beginning with Theodore Roosevelt early in the 20th century.

The 44th president’s quest to succeed where others have failed seemed at a dead end two months ago, when Republicans won a special election to fill Edward Kennedy’s Massachusetts Senate seat, and with it, enough votes to prevent a final vote.

But the White House, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid soon came up with a rescue plan that required the House to approve the Senate-passed measure despite opposition to many of its provisions, then have both chambers pass a fix-it measure incorporating numerous changes.

Under the order of the day, set down by Democrats, the House was voting first on the Senate-passed bill, sending it to Obama for his signature. A final vote on the fix-it bill would follow. Its passage would set up a final showdown in the Senate, where Reid says at least 50 votes are in hand for its final approval under a fast-track procedure known as reconciliation.

Under the legislation, most Americans would be required to purchase insurance, and face penalties if they refused. Much of the money in the bill would be devoted to subsidies to help families at incomes of up to $88,000 a year pay their premiums.

The legislation would also usher in a significant expansion of Medicaid, the federal-state health care program for the poor.

The insurance industry would come under new federal regulation. They would be forbidden from placing lifetime dollar limits on policies, from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions and from cancelling policies when a policyholder becomes ill.

Parents would be able to keep older children on their coverage up to age 26. A new high-risk pool would offer coverage to uninsured people with medical problems until 2014, when the coverage expansion goes into high gear.

Once enacted, the two bills would create a series of so-called “insurance exchanges” beginning in 2014 where self-employed people and small businesses could pool together to shop for health care coverage.

To pay for the changes, the legislation includes more than $400 billion in higher taxes over a decade, roughly half of it from a new Medicare payroll tax on individuals with incomes over $200,000 and couples over $250,000.