Baucus Bill garners no Republican support

Sep 16 2009

Sen. Max Baucus is unveiling his health overhaul bill today at noon and news outlets noted it will not have any Republican support.

The Associated Press reports "Baucus' decision to release his long-awaited health care overhaul bill with no Republicans on board dims the chances for a bipartisan compromise on President Barack Obama's top domestic priority. The Senate Finance Committee chairman insisted Tuesday that he'll keep negotiating with the three Republicans and two fellow Democrats who've been in closed-door talks with him for months on the bill he was to reveal Wednesday. Baucus, D-Mont., said he hopes that by the time the committee votes on the bill, as early as next week, Republicans will be there."

"Many of the details in the Baucus' bill were already known. Unlike more liberal versions passed by three committees in the House and by the Senate's Health Committee, it shunned liberals' call for the government to sell insurance and relied instead on co-ops to offer coverage in competition with private industry" (Werner, 9/16).

The Los Angeles Times: "Baucus was still revising key provisions of the bill Tuesday, including curbs on funding for abortion and on benefits for illegal immigrants. But the broad outlines were clear. Like the version pending in the House, the Baucus proposal would require all individuals to have health insurance, make Medicaid available to more poor people, provide subsidies to help middle- and lower-income people afford private coverage, and set up marketplaces for individuals and small businesses to buy insurance at competitive rates. But the Baucus bill costs less than $880 billion over 10 years, compared with the $1-trillion measure in the House" (Hook and Nicholas, 9/16).

The New York Times reports that the Senate Finance Committee ranking Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley and number two Democrat, Sen. John Rockefeller, each have concerns about the bill. Rockefeller said Tuesday "he could not support the bill in its current form." Meanwhile, "Democrats expressed a variety of concerns. Representative Charles B. Rangel of New York, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said Mr. Baucus, by paring the cost of the bill, had also cut the subsidies that would help people buy insurance. 'This is reducing coverage for poor and working people,' Mr. Rangel said, adding that such cuts 'could destroy the bill.' ... Mr. Baucus's plan, like the other major bills in Congress, would expand Medicaid to cover childless adults and other people with incomes less than 133 percent of the poverty level ($29,327 for a family of four)."

"In a telephone conference call with governors on Tuesday, Mr. Baucus said states would have to help pay the cost of covering people newly eligible for Medicaid. But he tried to allay the concerns of governors, who oppose any type of 'unfunded mandate'" (Pear and Herszenhorn, 9/15).

Politico: "Democratic senators have been particularly vocal in recent days about concerns that the bill will not provide affordable coverage to lower-income Americans. The bill provides government subsidies for people whose income is up to 300 percent above the poverty line. For those with incomes between 300 and 400 percent above the poverty line, their annual premiums would be capped at 13 percent of their income. It's a level that Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) says is too high, but it would be less than the current average cost of a family insurance plan, which is $13,375, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation" (Budoff Brown, 9/16).

Roll Call: "Finance Republicans, for their part, are working on a strategy for next week's markup, according to a GOP source. Baucus said the committee would take up the bill beginning on Sept. 22. The three Republicans in the gang of six — (Grassley) and Sens. Mike Enzi (Wyo.) and Olympia Snowe (Maine) — are not participating in those strategy sessions, signaling a commitment to the bipartisan talks even though they are not expected to support Baucus' bill when it is introduced today" (Drucker, 9/16).

Politico in a second story: "The lack of Republican support — at the outset, at least — suggests Democrats will need to make more concessions if they hope to produce a bipartisan bill. Otherwise, the Senate leadership may have to use a last-ditch procedural maneuver known as reconciliation to move the bill through the chamber with 51 votes. The absence of Republicans could also damage President Barack Obama's efforts to convince Americans that his reform plan has broad support" (Budoff Brown, 9/15).

This is part of Kaiser Health News' Daily Reports - a summary of health policy coverage from more than 300 news organizations. The full summary of the day's news can be found here and you can sign up for e-mail subscriptions to the Daily Reports here. In addition, our staff of reporters and correspondents file original stories each day, which you can find on our home page.