Senate Democrats move on healthcare
By Lisa Wangsness, Globe Staff
WASHINGTON -- A leading Senate Democrat rolled out a sweeping healthcare plan today, signalling that Democratic leaders in Congress intend to aggressively pursue significant -- and probably expensive -- healthcare legislation despite an expanding federal deficit and President-elect Barack Obama's intense focus on the ailing economy.
Senator Max Baucus of Montana, the head of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, unveiled an 89-page policy proposal that in many ways resembled the one Obama put forward during the campaign, with an important difference -- it requires everyone to buy health insurance. In that respect, it is even more like the plan Massachusetts enacted in 2006 than Obama's, which did not include an individual mandate.
Both Baucus and Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, have been working for months to lay the groundwork for major healthcare legislation, holding hearings and informal talks with business groups, providers, and consumer advocates.
Kennedy, who is fighting brain cancer but plans to return to Capitol Hill in January, plans to offer a single Democratic healthcare bill by Obama's Jan. 20 inauguration. Today Kennedy issued a statement praising Baucus's blueprint, saying it provides "an important analysis of the urgent need for significant improvements in our health care system, and thoughtful recommendations for reform."
Baucus told reporters that Kennedy called him with "very complimentary" comments this morning. Advocates for health reform said their clear interest in collaboration boded well.
"Senator Baucus and Senator Kennedy have really laid the groundwork for getting this done," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a national organization for healthcare consumers.
The senators' urgency reflects the Democrats' determination to avoid mistakes that ruined the Clinton administration's attempt to pass major health care legislation in 1993, when controversies over gays in the military and trade distracted attention from the healthcare issue and undermined public support for the new administration. Democrats believe they must move quickly to capitalize on Obama's honeymoon period.
Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Obama, said today that while fixing the economy will be the top priority when Obama takes office, he still plans to follow through on major, sweeping campaign promises, including healthcare reform.
"Clearly there's a need for healthcare," she said on "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer" on PBS. "And I think that throughout the campaign, what President-elect Obama heard time and time again is the importance of affordable health care for everybody."
Despite the country's enormous economic problems, the political landscape will be somewhat better for Democrats than it was 16 years ago. With health costs spiralling, businesses of all sizes have joined the call for comprehensive health reform. Both the National Business Roundtable, which represents the country's largest businesses, and the National Federation of Independent Business, joined with the AARP and the Service Employees International Union during the campaign season and launched a massive campaign to call for health reform.
Today, Amanda Austin, a senior manager of legislative affairs for the NFIB, which represents small businesses, said her organization was encouraged by the Baucus plan's "holistic approach" to addressing not only healthcare access but costs.
She said she was optimistic about health reform happening early in the Obama administration because of the strong desire on the part of the public for health reform, the new administration's interest in the issue and the work of Kennedy and Baucus.
"It's the perfect storm, and I'm hopeful that President-elect Obama can hold on to both sides of that and find time in the first year while there is that momentum to look at it," she said.
The need for the plan is also greater: there are nearly 47 million Americans without health insurance, and another 25 million who are underinsured.
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I think in order to include all people none left behind why not use something like a two way solution.Government on one lane and Free Market on the other lane and people will look at both plan clearly and without a doubt make their choices that best suit them and go with that plan.Two plans look attractive than one plan and the government should figure that out long time ago for the benefit of each individual family or person in this country.It's like traffics on the road you have a car pool lane and the rest for one person only and those in the car pool lane can change lane and vice versa but the important thing is everybody get to their destination or whereever they go.
Let's make health care our # 1 priority. Scratch off the economy, financial bailouts, two wars, Iran, terrorism, Raul traveling to Russia. Lucky for us the Messiah will save us!
Hawaii just dropped their state health care run system after 6 months. Government should run our daily lives because those suits have the perfect receipe for our health care system, throw our money at it!
The total Socialization of America can not even wait for January! Start now!
Think about this. The government couldn't even deliver health care to a couple of hundred injured soldiers at Walter Reed. Remember the roaches, the rats, and the sewerage? We're therefore going to trust them to run it for the entire country?
Do you really want the same kind of people who work at the Mass Dept of Motor Vehicles to be deciding if your child gets a bone marrow transplant, or if you're not too old to get treatment for a brain tumor?
Free health care for everyone! Bailouts for everybody! Wonderful! The Messiah will turn water into money to pay for it all!
We are in deep, deep trouble. The financial insolvency of the US government may be what is necessary to get this country back on the right track.
Based on the Massachusetts plan? According to a recent Business Week stat, the highest per capita (person) debt in the nation is right here in Massachusetts, and it's due largely to this budget-busting health care system.
Based on the Massachusetts plan? According to a recent Business Week stat, the highest per capita (person) debt in the nation is right here in Massachusetts, and it's due largely to this budget-busting health care system.
Ryan, I bet you are the same kinda person who would deny Homosexuals the right to marriage as defined by the government huh...
The same business groups that helped kill the last major attempt now support this healthcare deform because this one involves a state mandate for everybody to be a consumer by law and purchase a business product you don't want.
Capricorn in Pluto--2008 to 2023: Welcome to the perfect Corporation-State economy, where if business wants to grow, it requires you by law to purchase their "health" products, or anything else via their representation in Congress.
Yeah ryan, you shouldn't mock lord Obama, or his position reversals, or his supporters who don't know anything about his positions or the reversals of his positions might be offended.
There all fantastic government-run health care systems in europe and canada that do a great job delivering better quality health care than the US. Why do we assume that we can't do the same thing? It's that "can't do" attitude, promulgated by frustrated republicans that government can't do anything right.
Well, they're probably right if it means government crippled by republican leaders for the sole purpose of showing how useless government are. The EPA and FEMA are two prime examples: Bush stripped them and filled them with industry/political allies and then demonstrated how they don't work!
Beware of socialized medicine. When the government controls your healthcare they basically decide how much it is worth to keep you alive. I, for one, do not trust my government that much.
It is time for public funded universal health care. The Canadians do it. So do the English, French, Germans, Spanish, Italians, etc etc. Why subsidize the insurance companies? We have a system where insurance bureaucrats make medical decisions and they have a vested interest in denying care. What sense is that?
CHANGE! So much change that he says it might take 2 terms for any change. Yet we are seeing an attempt at early change in Healthcare to make everyone pay more change. Meaning I'm going to have less change. So much and yet so little change....
The national debt is $10.622 trillion, up $1.393 trillion so far this year, so the Welfare State may not last much longer. When it ends, the solution for those who can't afford health care will be charity, not government.
James
Why should homosexuals have the right to marry. It's not a right, it's an exception. Why do you have to legitamize your way of life? I don't have a problem with civil unions, but marriage, no way.
We are being told that 47 million Americans are uninsured. I'm just wondering if millions of illegal immigrants are included in that number? If we have to insure them then I am not in favor of it, but if not, I'll consider supporting it.
This country is going bankrupt supporting illegal immigration. Just look at what's happening in California if you don't believe me. It costs us three times as much as both wars combined per year. When are we going to stop being taken advantage of?
Every other country in the developed world has universal health care. GM spends $3,000.00 more than the Japanese for health care on each car the produce. That is what keeps them from being able to make an efficient car they can make a profit on. Universal health care will help businesses like the auto industry compete in the world.
The private sector has manipulated regulations to maximize profits, e.g., the pharmaceutical and energy (Enron) industries. Overhead costs for private health insurance average 15 percent (global administrative costs 25 percent). Medicare, with overhead costs of 2 to 3 percent, cannot avoid the poor, the sick or expensive cases, like the private sector can. The bottom line: Money spent on administration, overhead, marketing, inflated CEO salaries and corporate profits is money subtracted from patient care.