Obama Sets August as Make-or-break Deadline On Health Care
Democratic senators, who met with the president at the White House yesterday, promised they would meet the deadline even as two contentious issues — taxing employer-paid benefits and setting up a government insurance plan — are unresolved.
“Soaring health-care costs are unsustainable for families, they are unsustainable for businesses, and they are unsustainable for governments,” Obama said before the meeting with lawmakers. “This is the time where weve got to get this done.”
The administration is kicking off a campaign to push Congress to meet Obamas deadline of finishing work on drafting a measure before Congress leaves for its August recess. That would give lawmakers time for final negotiations and passage after they return to Washington in September.
Democrats, who control both the House and Senate, are considering proposals that would require employers to cover all full-time workers or pay a penalty to the government; create a “health exchange” to allow consumers to buy insurance at lower, group rates; set up a new government-run plan to cover some of the uninsured; and levy new taxes to pay for universal coverage.
Senator Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said before the meeting with Obama that lawmakers will meet the presidents deadline.
This Year
“We will pass a comprehensive, meaningful health-care reform bill this year,” the Montana Democrat said.
Representative Charles Rangel of New York, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said he expected the House legislation would be finished in July and that a bill could be on the presidents desk by Oct. 1.
While Obamas timetable got endorsement from leading Democrats, there were indications of some tough negotiations to come. Baucus repeated that the Finance Committee will consider taxing portions of employer-provided insurance benefits for workers, a step that collides with Obama administration plans.
Baucus got a key ally on that point in Republican Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire. Gregg, the senior Republican on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, offered a measure that would pay for the overhaul by capping the tax exclusion for employer-provided benefits.
Taxing Benefits
White House budget director Peter Orszag said the administration hasnt altered its stance on taxing benefits.
“It was not in the presidents plan, it was not in the budget,” he said at the morning briefing.
Democrats may run into strong opposition from Republicans on creating a government-run insurance plan. Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, said the “sentiment in the room” at the White House meeting was in favor of a strong public plan.
Charles Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, one of the panels where the legislation is being drafted, said any attempt to win Republican votes on a compromise will be tough if Democrats push through a public insurance system that will compete with private insurers.
Republican Input
Grassley said he was dismayed that Republicans werent invited to this afternoons White House meeting.
Grassley said that at a lunch he had with Obama a month ago, the president indicated he wanted support from both parties. Obama said he would rather get 85 percent of what he wants to achieve if it has bipartisan backing, rather than win everything with only Democratic support, according to Grassley.