Obama Health Conference Puts Overhaul In Motion, Baucus Says
The March 5 gathering hosted by President Barack Obama brings together lawmakers and interest groups “to start asking the next level of questions,” Baucus said. Baucus, author of a proposal to expand coverage and control costs, said hell also meet this week with this week with Senator Edward Kennedy, who is also working on health overhaul legislation.
The schedule, outlined by Baucus to reporters today, gives Republicans and Democrats about four months to agree how to reshape medical coverage, including whether government programs or private insurance should cover more Americans. Obama last week proposed $634 billion in his budget as a “down payment” to overhaul the U.S. health system, financed in part with a tax increase on wealthy Americans that Republicans criticized.
“Bipartisanship is the tone that Democrats say they want to set for Washington,” said Robert Blendon, a health-policy pollster at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a telephone interview today. Still, Democrats and Republicans “have very different visions of what health reform is.”
The Finance Committee chaired by Baucus, Democrat of Montana, has jurisdiction over Medicare and Medicaid, the two largest government health programs. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, chairs the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.
Republican Staffs
Republican and Democratic staffs of both committees have been meeting since December. Kennedys staff also has been holding twice-weekly meetings with groups representing insurers, businesses, hospitals and consumers to reach consensus.
Obama and Democratic lawmakers need to show theyre serious about working with Republicans, Senator Michael Enzi, a Wyoming Republican who sits on both committees, said in an e-mail.
“This health-care summit is a good first step,” said Enzi, who plans to attend. “I hope this represents a new, bipartisan approach. Paving a highway and then dragging people down it is not bipartisanship.”
Obama, in his campaign, pledged to expand government health programs and give people subsidies to make insurance more affordable. He also suggested a new public plan, similar to Medicare, the program for the elderly and disabled, to compete with private insurance.
This is where Republican and Democratic lawmakers usually part ways, said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, an economist who last year advised Obamas election opponent, Republican John McCain.
Sticking Point
Congress ultimately doesnt need a bipartisan measure, Blendon said. Getting a few Republicans to vote with the Democrats will be enough for universal coverage.
“For most voters, its the results that count, not the quality of the interaction,” Blendon said. “If you are talking about getting everyone covered, you wont have a bill that looks very bipartisan.”