by Noam N. Levey and Janet Hook and updated again at 1:35 pm EDT
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, unveiling the House's plan for a compromise on health-care legislation today, said the bill will offer new insurance for tens of millions of Americans and lower costs for those who already have coverage.
The plan represents a compromise among various interests in the House, the speaker said -- though Republicans have sharply rejected it. It also will lead to a planned House vote and position House leaders for negotiations with Senate leaders crafting their own health-care plan.
"Here we are, for nearly a century, it's really over a century, leaders of all political parties... have called and fought for health care and health insurance reform,'' said Pelosi (D-Calif.) "Today, we are about to deliver on the promise of making affordable, quality health care available for all Americans.''
Pelosi maintained today that the House leadership's compromise will make health care more affordable for the middle class and secure for seniors. The bill offers health insurance for an additional 36 million Americans, she said - offering coverage for 96 percent of all citizens - and its cost over 10 years, under $900 billion, will not increase the federal budget deficit.
"The drive for health-care reform is moving forward,'' Pelosi said.
"This is an idea whose time has come,''' said Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the House majority leader, promising to keep a promise of "integrity of this progress by making this bill's full text available on line.'' It will be online for 72 hours before House members are asked to vote, he said.
"This is an idea whose time has come,'' Hoyer said.
Paving the way for a crucial vote on healthcare legislation in the next two weeks, the compromise unveiled by House Democratic leaders today would create a nationwide government-run insurance plan but omit what many liberals consider the key to cost control.
According to senior lawmakers and aides, the so-called public option in the new compromise would not dictate what the plan can pay hospitals, doctors and other providers. Instead, the federal government would have to negotiate rates with providers, much as private insurers do.
Pelosi and her lieutenants made that concession in hopes of winning over conservative Democrats. Many of those lawmakers fear that payments based on lower Medicare rates -- the formula Pelosi originally supported -- would not be enough to sustain providers in rural areas.
While a coalition of Democrats has been assembled to support the speaker's compromise, Republicans remain opposed.
"The American people have spoken. Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats have ignored them,'' House Republican Leader John Boehner said today. "Through the month of August, the American people let Members of Congress from both parties know that they didn't want a government takeover of health care...
"But instead of listening to the American people, Democrats hid behind closed doors and came back with a bill designed to appease the liberal special interests,'' said Boehner (R-Ohio.) "Three things about Speaker Pelosi's health care bill are already clear: it will raise the cost of Americans' health insurance premiums; it will kill jobs with tax hikes and new mandates; and it will cut seniors' Medicare benefits.
"The fact that it weighs in at nearly 2,000 pages - more than 620 pages longer than the government takeover of health care Hillary Clinton proposed in 1993 - is as good an indication as any of just how costly and unsustainable Speaker Pelosi's proposal is. ''
Senior Democrats said that the concession represented real progress.
"Most of you all thought the public option was dead," said Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee and a Pelosi ally. "Rumors of its death were greatly exaggerated."
The decision to endorse the compromise ends weeks of heated and difficult debate among House Democrats. It comes just days after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) threw his weight behind a slightly different public-option compromise that would give states the ability to opt out of a national government insurance plan.
Reid is working to persuade conservative Democrats to back his proposal -- which also would require the plan to negotiate with providers -- as Senate Democratic leaders think they are a few votes shy of the 60 they need. But with other parts of the bill still being developed, it appears increasingly unlikely that Reid will be able to move legislation through the Senate before Thanksgiving.
The House bill -- the cost of which Democrats are struggling to keep under $900 billion over the next decade -- builds on legislation introduced this year.
It will include sweeping new regulation of the insurance industry, prohibiting companies from denying coverage to sick people. And it will provide subsidies to millions of Americans to help them buy insurance in a regulated exchange, where commercial insurers would offer plans alongside the government option.
It also mandates that Americans buy insurance, and requires large employers to provide their workers with health benefits.
All Americans making less than 150% of the federal poverty level -- $16,245 for an individual and $33,075 for a family of four -- would be eligible for Medicaid, the federal-state insurance program for the poor.
Earlier versions of the legislation had limited eligibility for Medicaid, which now primarily serves poor children and their families in many states, to people making less than 133% of the poverty level.
The bill will be funded largely by a combination of cuts in Medicare -- many of them designed to make the program more efficient -- and a 5.4% surtax on individual taxpayers making more than $500,000 and couples making more than $1 million.
And after 10 years, it will boost those covered by about 35 million people, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. That is substantially more than the more conservative bill approved by the Senate Finance Committee this month, which would have dropped the number of uninsured by 29 million.
The House bill also will include a complex mechanism for limiting the use of taxpayer subsidies for abortion services: Insurance companies that offer abortion coverage would be required to segregate funds received from consumers from subsidies provided by the federal government.
That provision has come under fire from many lawmakers who are opposed to abortion rights, and Democratic leaders continue to work on ways to resolve the issue, according to one senior aide who requested anonymity when discussing the negotiations.
Pelosi and other liberal lawmakers worked for weeks to rally support for the so-called robust public option, which would pay providers 5% more than Medicare, the federal insurance program for the elderly.
Such a plan promised to save the government tens of billions of dollars over the next decade, in part because Medicare typically pays providers less than commercial insurers do. But that stoked intense opposition from hospitals, which are important employers in many rural areas of the country represented by conservative Democrats.
Even in defeat, several leading liberal lawmakers noted Wednesday how much the prospects for a public option had improved since the summer, when many political analysts left it for dead.
And Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Petaluma), a leader of the influential Congressional Progressive Caucus, refused to throw in the towel.
"It's not even the fourth quarter," she said. "We will be insisting on it being as strong as it possibly can be."
Woolsey and other liberal congressional leaders are to meet with President Obama today.
"He needs to hear from us that he needs to support the public option," she said. "He's not saying it loud enough. We want to make sure he lets the Senate know he wants a public option in the bill."
Comments
I hope that it is posted on the internet. then the media can review the deals made that benefit special interests and lobbyists.
We can also try to figure out if it will increase the deficit and the national debt as we already know that some ones taxes are headed upwards and onwards!
Posted by: Pat H | October 29, 2009 11:05 AM
The real devil is in the details with the version of the bill they are proposing to vote on. The volume of paperwork associated with it makes it tedious for us to read it comprehensively. I hope the Tribune will assign a staffer to look this over a tell us about those details that I think may make many unhappy.
Posted by: Norm Silver | October 29, 2009 11:34 AM
Too bad that Pelosi, Reid, and teh messiah do not get the fact that the majority of the people do not want their dollars going to insure ILLEGALS.
Posted by: BDDBDD | October 29, 2009 12:04 PM
It is unbelievable that Obama, Pelosi and Reid and still trying to ram this God-awful ObamaCare down our throats. Of course, this has nothing to do with "reform" and everything to do with power and control. Obama seeks to put as much of the private economy under government control as posslble to create his nanny state utopia where he is the boy king. Wake up, folks. It's going to take every one of us to rid our government of the tyrants, socialists and communists who intend to use your freedoms and tax dollars as their Marxist play things. Keep the faith, Americans, we WILL take the country back from the spoiled, arrogant, incompetent children in the White House. It begins in Virgina, New York and New Jersey next Tuesday and continues in November 2010.
Posted by: Derrick | October 29, 2009 12:05 PM
Hmmm Washington DC has no shortage of H1N1 vaccines, interesting. If our "elected" officials prioritize themselves with something as simple as this vaccine, I just can't buy that they can properly take on health care reform. Just hard to believe when something this simple is tainted by prioritizing DC. We just here to pay the taxes that finance these programs, silly citizens in the at rik groups who pay their federal taxes don't need the vaccines.
Posted by: Kate H | October 29, 2009 12:16 PM
G\vernment intervention in the delivery and payment for health care is the greatest and gravest error made by the Federal Government. It is the strongest move towards Socialization of our government,lead by the Executive branch and Congress to control the American public. Federal health care is not needed and is supported by people who want something for nothing. It is a disgrace
Posted by: Darryl Powell, MD | October 29, 2009 12:20 PM
and its cost over 10 years, under $900 billion, will not increase the federal budget deficit.
How do they do that. By starting the new taxes in year one but, not starting Obamacare until 2013. Funny how it starts after 2012.
Posted by: Crooks_In_DC | October 29, 2009 12:25 PM
A wolf in sheeps clothing is still a wolf...
Beware...
Why not just extend Medicare/Medicaid to those under the poverty level? At least we already know that program doesn't work...
Posted by: PAnderer | October 29, 2009 12:31 PM
57% Say Health Care Plan Will Increase Costs, 53% Say It Will Reduce Quality of Care, 45% Favor Passage
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/september_2009/health_care_reform
Posted by: Crooks_In_DC | October 29, 2009 12:31 PM
Thank God, its time has come. Now, maybe the Healthcare Insurers will quit killing their clients, denying them the care they thought they were paying for !! Maybe we can get the Republican-Libertarians to quit the lying and fear-mongering. Maybe we can get them to pass an extension of the unemployment compensation benefits, that they are blocking in the Senate. Hope springs eternal, unfortunately, it is the nay-sayers, the Republican-Libertarians, that are destroying a great many Americans' hope, with their obstructionism and their fear-mongering !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, IL | October 29, 2009 12:32 PM
Clunkers: Taxpayers paid $24,000 per car
http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/28/autos/clunkers_analysis/index.htm
And what do you really think Obamacare will cost?
Posted by: Crooks_In_DC | October 29, 2009 12:37 PM
Hey BDDBDD,
What exactly is your proposal for dealing with non US residents who walk into a doctor or emergency room needing health care? Do we just let them lie down on the floor and die? Face it, we are providing health care one way or another for everyone today, it just ends up as an expense to the American taxpayer by way of increased cost.
If you are on vacation in Mexico and you get sick or injured, should they just let you die because you don't have health insurance in Mexico?
Posted by: Joe Schmo | October 29, 2009 12:39 PM
How about we take a lood at Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare (military dependents and retirees), Bureau of Indian Affairs, etc. to see how well the government runs a health care system before we turn over everything to them.
Posted by: Kevin C | October 29, 2009 1:28 PM
Supposedly, Pelosi claims that a good chunk of the $900 billion tab with come from "new efficiencies" in Medicare. If we are capable of those efficiencies, why notimplement those first and use that money BEFORE you start taxing people. We know why.......can't be done! The bailouts and cash for clunkers were just warm ups for what this is ultimately going to cost this country. All the while, like everything else the govt runs (Medicare, VA, social security, FAA) service and accessibility will go down the drain.
Posted by: Kim | October 29, 2009 1:34 PM
The heckler at the press conference was correct when he called her Nazi Pelosi.
Posted by: Guy Williams | October 29, 2009 1:52 PM
I'm wondering if members of Congress and the government will be under the same health care system that they want us to have? Will members of Hollywood be under the same system too?
And what government spending program has ever come in at what they told it would cost?
Posted by: John D, still right, as usual | October 29, 2009 2:03 PM
It sure would have been nice if the Patriot Act had been subjected to the same scrutiny, skepticism and debate.
Posted by: Rich | October 29, 2009 2:06 PM
Im still waiting to see just how much a month people will have to pay for this -- they have YET to say that. Whats the point of forcing people to buy insurnace if they cannot afford --- and im talking paying no more than $50/month -- thats affordable.
Posted by: Paul | October 29, 2009 2:06 PM
It sure would have been nice if the Patriot Act had been subjected to the same scrutiny, skepticism and debate.
Posted by: Rich | October 29, 2009 2:06 PM
OH YEAH OH YEAH OH YEAH. Let's all RUN to pass a 1000 page bill that NOBODY , as elected official HAS READ. Is this NOT the height of incompetence and stupidity. Oh by the way if you are against a bill that nobody has read you must be either a racist or against humanity and the plight of ALL Americans. It will only be later that all of the special interest PORK will be delivered. Such as the topping up of certain UNION pension funds. etc. etc. Remember to give it to the legal taxpayer right in the neck. Brought to you by the Messiah of truth and light and the NEW winds of Change.
Posted by: senator dirksen | October 29, 2009 2:07 PM
NO GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER OF HEALTHCARE. Hey Obama -- Get off of our backs.
Posted by: Keyle | October 29, 2009 2:28 PM
Must be fraud if Nancy is pushing it, her noted for past lies.
Posted by: inky | October 29, 2009 2:53 PM
The Government is incapable of running anything properly. "Savings through efficiency" - crap! Nancy Belalugosi and the other Dems want control not savings.
Posted by: Den C | October 29, 2009 3:12 PM
Is the bill as trite and archaic as the comments made? Who wrote this baggage? It's already "over the hill" and "out of date" and "sure to please" the "old farts" in congress. "Bend over and sign this way"!
Posted by: Anne Jackson | October 29, 2009 3:16 PM
To all the naysayers, this sounds like a reasonable, responsibile plan to 1. cover the uninsured 2. force private insurers to stop the ridiculous restrictions against coverage and 3. lower premiums by offering a public option.
I hope this passes, the whole country will be the better for it, although the paychecks of private insurer executives may drop a couple zeros.
Posted by: responsible citizen | October 29, 2009 3:22 PM
Thank God, its time has come. Now, maybe the Healthcare Insurers will quit killing their clients, denying them the care they thought they were paying for !! Maybe we can get the Republican-Libertarians to quit the lying and fear-mongering. Maybe we can get them to pass an extension of the unemployment compensation benefits, that they are blocking in the Senate. Hope springs eternal, unfortunately, it is the nay-sayers, the Republican-Libertarians, that are destroying a great many Americans' hope, with their obstructionism and their fear-mongering !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, IL | October 29, 2009 3:38 PM
Now all you need is another 400,000 M.D.'s to treat the extra 36,000,000 newly insured Americans -- good luck! Maybe the marxist government can simply annoint selected constituents to be physicians? What a collection of dummies.
Posted by: Shamus | October 29, 2009 3:48 PM
3 whole days to review a 2000 page document? You only have to read 666 pages a day. You'd almost think Nazi Pelosi doesn't want you to see what's in it.
Posted by: N.R. Bovee | October 29, 2009 5:42 PM
All the haters are just republicants that know this will be a very popular program, and it will reduce the republicant's election odds considerably. Repubicants hate things that benefit Democrats, even if it is good for all Americans. They love power, not America.
Posted by: I heart Schadenfreude | October 29, 2009 7:48 PM
The Trib left out the best part of House Republican Leader John Boehner's statement today, when he followed up with the Republican rejection of the Pelosi plan by suggesting that the Republicans have their own plan, and that they "would reveal their plan" when they decide to take the time to think about it.
Nonetheless, any suggestion by Nancy Pelosi (who never writes a bill) that this proposal is "reform" is not true.
She only knows how to lie!
Posted by: skeptic | October 29, 2009 8:30 PM
Why do Pelosi and Reid and Obama feel the need to rush into this healthcare bill?? There is a lot to be discussed about this. They don't seem to think that the AMERICAN PUBLIC should be included in the discussion. Pelosi is a lying you-know-what! Reid is a coniving you-know-what! Obama is the circus ringmaster! We should vote all these bums out of office. Only then can we procede to make an honest policy of medical insurance, good for all citizens of the United States.
Posted by: PabloKiks | October 29, 2009 9:52 PM
Nice compromise, but a skunk painted blue is still a skunk. Does anyone really believe this thing will not raise the debt? Pelosi and Reid have a track record that does not generally inspire trust, so why trust them now?
Posted by: Mark | October 29, 2009 11:17 PM
Pelosi's public "option" will only be an option for 10% of Americans. It's a farce and an insult. The other 90% will have the promised increase of premiums from the forced gun-to-our-heads for-profit insurance companies--S.O.S. How was it legal for the insurance industry to write this bill for Nancy and Baucus? It sure wasn't written for us. This bill looks like something I personally don't want to pay for. Why? I wan't to stay screwed from the insurance industry the same way I have been. At least I know how I'm being screwed right now. Perhaps I should turn repug. Nancy's bill will not give me freedom to shop around for the best deal--and I will be paying into the general fund--in a round about way--with my government-gun-to-my-head-insurance-premiums, as Nancy mentioned in her Capitol Hill speech this summer. Nancy said today her bill will cover 96% of Americans. Who are the other 4%? Could you or I be one of the 4%???? Nancy, and the creep--that health industry supported $$$$$ Baucus are trying to force us to accecpt health "reform" in name only. I will always push back against lies and manipulation from politicians. Those pompous SOBs--with their elaborate display of BS. Really hate being lied to by smiling scum. I hope Burris is true to his word--even though the Health czar has been twisting Burris' arm to vote for a piece of crap bill that will not help Americans. Obama passed credit card reform...see how we were screwed by that. The Clinton and Bush "free" trade reform screwed us out of all our manufacturing jobs. That was sweet.
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Obama has not been true to his campaign promises on universal health care and the insurance industry. Really hate that. More lies by Obama to add to health"reform"----Where are the infrastructure improvements from the stimulus money? Seems like stimulus money is building only piddly, small projects. Obama's new power grid could be built from all the bail-out money. But, no. Insurance, bankers and other nations got our money. Must thank a Bush here, too. AIG and all of Geithner, Bush and Obama's Wall Sreet buddies can pay for the new grid to make up for their looting. Get Geithner--that fox in our hen house--the hell out American public office. Obama seems a bit devilish for putting Geithner in his position. Like Obama didn't know Geithners connections and loyalties. They sure weren't America first. Now power "reform"? Obama will allow Con Edison to do a surcharge per outlet in our homes. Right. Reform is just another word for getting screwed. No thanks. Don't need any more reform from greedy and stupid politicians. Ever. I could have handled reform from unbribed and smart politicians. But not this.
Posted by: Vivian | October 29, 2009 11:59 PM
Thank God, its time has come. Now, maybe the Healthcare Insurers will quit killing their clients, denying them the care they thought they were paying for !! Maybe we can get the Republican-Libertarians to quit the lying and fear-mongering. Maybe we can get them to pass an extension of the unemployment compensation benefits, that they are blocking in the Senate. Hope springs eternal, unfortunately, it is the nay-sayers, the Republican-Libertarians, that are destroying a great many Americans' hope, with their obstructionism and their fear-mongering !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, IL | October 30, 2009 5:36 PM
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Posted by: Vivian | October 29, 2009 11:59 PM
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Vivian,
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Yours is the refreshing voice of reason. My delight in reading your post is tempered only by the sadness that few, if any, will listen to the wisdom you express.
Posted by: John W. | October 30, 2009 8:11 PM
Simple question - during BO's speech before the joint session of Congress a few weeks ago, he said that there are 30 million uninsured Americans. Why is the Hosue bill going to cover 36 million uninsured? Just who are these additional 6 million?
Posted by: Terry | October 30, 2009 10:25 PM
John W.--please do correct me. It would make this entire "reform" bill palatable, and it might help to make the Obama administration palatable. Written by a dem who bought the "hope" crap and, who will not buy it again.
Posted by: Vivian | October 31, 2009 11:18 AM
Change. Hope. Hope for change. Have a beer with me. Obama is operating to the conservative side of the promises he made. Can't call it the "right". Far from the truth. He took the votes based on lies. We will have longer memories than he will give us credit. We will have longer memories than pugs will give us credit. A third party is a must since both parties and people in office have lied big time. Keep the history books going. No changing history for any reason.
Posted by: Vivian | October 31, 2009 12:32 PM
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Posted by: Vivian | October 31, 2009 11:18 AM
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You ask me to correct you? What is there to correct? I’m serious. Despite the likely difference we may have on a number of political issues, I totally agree with what you have written regarding the current situation. You make a lot of sense.
Posted by: John W. | October 31, 2009 4:09 PM
John W.--I read your 8:11 PM comment through my sarcastic-at-times eyes. Uff da. I like your interpretation of your words much better than my interpretation of them. Thanks.
Posted by: Vivian | October 31, 2009 8:25 PM
It will be a great day in America, when all of her citizens will be covered by some form of healthcare. President Obama and Speaker Pelosi have it right !! America, the only advanced(?) nation in the world that doesn't provide healthcare for all of its citizens and that is inexcusable. The only ones able to have affordable, comprehensive healthcare are those that have a great amount of money to pay for it or they have fantastic jobs. 50 Million Americans are uninsured or underinsured and there are some in America, who don't care, who find nothing wrong with that incomprehensible fact. Shame on those small-minded, selfish few, that are of that mind. I sincerely hope, they come to their senses, soon, but reality and history dampen my hopes. They still haven't accepted President Obama as our President. How unfortunate !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, IL | November 1, 2009 10:14 AM