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Senators say that they are near workable health-care overhaul
They say they have trimmed bill to keep costs under $1 trillion
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Published: June 26, 2009
WASHINGTON
Senators working to give President Obama a comprehensive health-care overhaul said yesterday that they have figured out how to pare back the complex legislation to keep costs from crashing through a $1 trillion, 10-year ceiling.
The announcement from Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the chairman of the Finance Committee, and other legislators amounted to a small, parting gift to Obama on his top domestic priority as Congress prepares to leave town for its weeklong July 4 recess. It moved Congress a bit closer to a deal on legislation to lower costs and provide coverage to nearly 50 million Americans who lack it. It also capped two weeks of tough going for health-care negotiations on Capitol Hill as price tags as high as $1.6 trillion over 10 years sent senators back to the drawing board and forced deadlines to be repeatedly reset.
"We have options that would enable us to write a $1 trillion bill, fully paid for," Baucus said at a news conference.
Baucus declined to detail how the costs were being cut, but options included difficult sacrifices such as potentially delaying an expansion of Medicaid, the federal-state program for the poor.
Others have said that the changes made in recent days would lower the cost of government subsidies for those who cannot afford insurance, as well as pare back a planned 10-year series of rate increases for doctors serving Medicare patients.
Aides said that the Congressional Budget Office had estimated that the elements under consideration would extend coverage to 97 percent of the population, excluding illegal immigrants.
But even Democrats acknowledged that yesterday's announcement fell short of a final deal on legislation to meet Obama's goals.
"There's not a final bill that's agreed to. What there is now is a clear path to having a bill that is paid for," said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., one of seven Republican and Democratic Finance Committee senators who have been working closely on the deal.
All seven issued a brief, joint statement later yesterday claiming progress, even though some Republicans involved made no secret of their skepticism.
"We have not seen language (of legislation) in any way shape or form," said Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah. He questioned how costs could be cut before bill language is written, calling it "gimmickry."
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