CQ TODAY PRINT EDITION
June 17, 2009 – 9:58 p.m.
Delays, Frustrations on Health Care
By Drew Armstrong, CQ Staff
Democrats have long said that overhauling health care will be difficult. And this week, as Congress begins trying to move legislation, they have stumbled over how to provide broader coverage without sending taxpayers into sticker shock.
The Senate Finance Committee has delayed its markup by several weeks while members work privately to make the cost of their legislation politically salable.
The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee started a markup session on Wednesday that is expected to last more than a week, but Republicans on the panel are already dismissing and trying to delay the proceedings. HELP Republicans are pressing Christopher J. Dodd , D-Conn., to delay the markup of draft legislation until they fill out some key pieces in private and figure out its total cost.
“We’re not talking about delaying the bill itself,” said the panel’s ranking Republican, Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming. “I don’t think they’re understanding quite what we’re saying yet.”
But Dodd, who is filling in for Chairman Edward M. Kennedy , D-Mass., said the committee would complete the bill language as soon as possible so that Republicans can offer amendments.
His strategy is to first mark up less controversial provisions — like language on preventive care and wellness — in order to give members more time to reach consensus behind the scenes on issues including a government-run “public plan,” generic versions of complex biotech drugs and a requirement for employers to provide insurance.
Sorting Out the Numbers
The Finance Committee was scheduled to mark up on June 23 a draft bill that was to be released this week.
But after receiving an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) putting the preliminary draft’s cost at $1.6 trillion over a decade, Finance Chairman Max Baucus , D-Mont., huddled with committee Democrats to discuss how to get that figure under $1 trillion.
But doing so will take time, which led Baucus to delay a markup, perhaps until after the July Fourth recess.
“When we’re ready, we’ll be ready,” Baucus said after a closed-door committee meeting. “We’re not there yet.”
Congressional committees with jurisdiction over the health legislation have been straining to meet Democratic leaders’ timetable calling for sending legislation to the House and Senate floors by August, and to meet President Obama’s request for something he can sign into law by October. The Finance Committee delay could make meeting those deadlines difficult.
Part of the delay has been in getting cost estimates from the CBO. Because the proposals are complex, the agency has needed time to model the moving parts of legislation coming from several committees.
Not all of the CBO numbers are in yet, Baucus said. “We have to wait until we get them, some of these numbers, as senators make up their minds on policy,” he said. “It’s just taking time here.”
The Finance Committee’s ranking Republican, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, said he did not know “whether this will be done next Tuesday or a week from Tuesday or, you know, maybe after the Fourth of July break. . . . But this is the first time that I had to kind of say we haven’t met a deadline.”
‘Why Are We Rushing So Much?’
Dodd, however, has pushed the HELP Committee forward, much to the dismay of panel Republicans, who spent half an hour Wednesday morning slamming committee Democrats.
Dodd has chosen to hold the markup in the Russell Senate Office Building’s Caucus Room, a chandelier-lit marble hall that has been the site, he noted, of many historic hearings. On Wednesday, he asked those present not to read too much into a plaque by the door listing some of those sessions, beginning with a 1912 hearing on the sinking of the Titanic.
But Wednesday’s session got no further than senators’ opening statements. A spokesman for committee Democrats said debate on amendments would begin Thursday.
Walking out of a morning session of the markup, Orrin G. Hatch , R-Utah, could be heard muttering, “Have you ever seen anything as ridiculous as this?”
Hatch urged the committee to slow down. “Why are we rushing so much? What are we trying to hide?” he said.
Republicans have blasted the bill’s many incomplete sections and its cost estimate, which they cite as evidence of a misfire of Democratic policy goals.
“This is the most incredible markup I’ve ever been in my entire time at the United States Senate,” said John McCain , R-Ariz.
A CBO estimate of parts of the bill has become a continuing embarrassment for committee Democrats. The CBO estimate, released June 15, indicated that it would cost $1 trillion while reducing the number of the nation’s uninsured by 16 million, out of 46 million. That estimate is incomplete because many parts of the bill are missing.
“How do you mark up a bill that you don’t know how much it costs when you’re trying to amend the bill because you’re concerned about costs?” asked Judd Gregg , R-N.H.
“We should take the time . . . to try and work out the contentious issues, like we’re doing in the Finance Committee,” said Enzi, who sits on both the Finance and HELP panels.
Dodd said all would be resolved in the coming weeks: “We have to start the process, that’s my view, and that’s why we’re here today. My intention is not to jam anything or force anything on people.”
Richard Rubin contributed to this story.
Comments
The only way to get universal coverage for LESS money is single payer. Anything else is an exercise in futility.
There are too many so-called conservatives in congress in both parties. They are more concerned about those big corporate donations to their campaigns than working for the people.
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