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February 22, 2010 10:06 PM UTC

Obama's Health Reform Compromise Bill Announced

  • 52 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

As the Washington Post reports:

President Obama made it clear Monday morning that he intends to make a final push for a comprehensive overhaul of the nation’s health-care and insurance system, offering a new health-care plan that largely embraces the approach already taken by the U.S. Senate.

The plan, which went live on the White House Web site at 10 a.m., rejects repeated calls from Republicans to scrap Democratic efforts from last year and start over. Instead, it attempts to merge the Senate legislation with its counterpart in the House in ways that would address some of the most controversial provisions in the stalled bill.

Shortly after the president’s plan went online, Republicans slammed it as “the same massive government takeover of health care” and said it undermined the bipartisan goals of the summit this week.

“This new Democrats-only backroom deal doubles down on the same failed approach that will drive up premiums, destroy jobs, raise taxes, and slash Medicare benefits,” said House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). “This week’s summit clearly has all the makings of a Democratic infomercial for continuing on a partisan course.”

Among the changes Obama seeks is a delay of the tax on high-end insurance plans until 2018, an end to the special Medicaid deal that negotiators had cut for Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson (D) and new federal authority over health-care insurance rate increases. The plan does not call for a public option health plan despite pressure from progressives in Obama’s Democratic party to do so.

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52 thoughts on “Obama’s Health Reform Compromise Bill Announced”

  1. Since when is the public option something progressives want? Most progressives I know want Single Payer. Moderate Dems want the public option.

    This plan also includes Nelson’s abortion language. Peachy. Thanks, Mr. President, for a bill no one can get behind.

    2. … at least not without trying to pass a new bill (which isn’t going to happen with the GOP in the majorityminority, acting as the party of ‘NO’).

      Anything passing via reconciliation must be a matter that affects the budget.  Abortion language in the HCR bill doesn’t affect the budget.

      1. At this time, no one in his office and apparently that includes him, knows if he supports it or not but I was assured that he will let everyone know his decision via his email newsletter. How comforting.

        I would bet that Mark Udall is counting on voters having their typical short term memory when it comes to his re-election in 5 years. It never ceases to amaze me how inaccessible Udall is. We all give David T. shit about it but the truth is Udall is one of the worst I’ve ever dealt with when it comes to voter outreach. I’m grateful to have him in the Senate, I’m happy for the most part with the job he is doing but his lack of accessibility is really growing tiresome, as is his unwillingness to take a more aggressive role in pushing for the public option.

        1. I submitted the same comment online (urging reconciliation) days ago, and all I got back was a form letter thanking me for my comment but making not even one reference to health care in particular; you’d get the same letter if you’d complained about NASA budget cuts.

          Frankly, I’m less irked by the non-response and more irked by the Salazar-like timid non-committal on any controversial issue.

          1. You said it better than I did. I’d like him to step up, take a more public stand, but when push comes to shove he hides under the nearest rock.  

        2. Even when he was still in the House he was too non-committal.  I think as part of his move to the Senate he opted for the spine removal procedure popular with so many Senate Democrats these days – he’s been almost completely useless since arriving.

          It would be nice if he showed a bit of spine here; comments I’ve heard are that he’s firmly in with the ConservaDems on this one: he wants the House to pass the Senate bill before anyone talks about fixing it.  He obviously hasn’t talked to anyone outside of his little ConservaDem clique lately: the House isn’t passing the Senate bill without some fixes.

            1. There’s a reason why he’s non-committal. It’s the same reason why Salazar was non-committal. We reside in Colorado, a staunchly independent state. If they were to go out on a limb on these issues, they will surely loose the next general election. Now I know you’re probably thinking they should serve without an eye on their future prospects, I would argue that this will lead to more Republican being elected. You thought these moderate Dems are bad, just wait until you have the likes of Coors, Norton…

              and when I say this, it’s purely strategic commentary. I wish they could go out on a limb as well but I don’t think they have the room to maneuver effectively.  

              1. He behaved the exact same way when he was in a House district that a Republican has virtually NO chance of winning. I have Markey in my district so I understand political reality quite well. Udall doesn’t get a pass with me on the way he refuses to meet with constituents or take a stand on just about anything that qualifies as meaningful legislation. And I have to tell you something you already know–voters don’t find dodging, wishy washy politicians particularly appealing.  

                1. I agree, Udall doesn’t get a pass when he held the CD2 seat and that’s unfortunate that he hasn’t been responsive.

                  I was his constituent while he was CD2 Congressman and thought he was fairly responsive.

                  Although, I still stand by my statement that he has no other choice than to play his hand the way he has due to the substantial independent constituency that he now needs to play to. I can’t speak to his responsiveness…

                  1. He triangulated even when he was in the House.

                    And let’s face it – the public option has significantly more support than the Senate bill.  His supporting the Senate bill without the public option actually lowers his approval if you go by the polls and his need to cater to voters.

                    1. That’s surprising. Where is there a CO poll that shows the public option ahead of the Senate bill? Due to poor communications coming from national Dems, folks have a lot of misconceptions about the public option and I would think that this is even more prominent with Indies.  

                    3. demographic breakouts

                      Independents in Colorado are more likely than the above-quoted average to support stronger changes.

                      They also say that Democrats should fight more and be less bi-partisan.  And they support universal buy-in to a government-run plan.  By a plurality, they also want more change, not less change.

                    4. If that poll holds water it’s nothing short of amazing. I really can’t believe it.

                      Republicans are going to fight tooth and nail to bring down Obama’s efforts on Thursday and they’ll soon feel the reconciliation wrath.  

                    5. National polls have shown for some time now that the public is not terribly supportive of the current health care reform effort – and, specifically, the Senate bill.  But they’ve remained supportive of the public option throughout.  All these polls do is confirm it on a state-by-state basis.

                      Udall’s constituents want a public option.  Heck – they want buy-in to a broader public plan.

                  2. It would be lame to hide from an issue based on having to run in 2014. That shouldn’t be an excuse anyways.  We’re paying these guys and they ought to tell us where they stand.  

                    Progressive constituencies in Colorado need to do a better job at holding elected leaders accountable.

    3. Yeah, I’d rather have single payer or public option or gradually reducing the age of Medicare.  Maybe those things will happen in the future.  But in the meantime, people won’t be kicked off of their insurance when they need it and won’t hit caps.  These are very good things.

  2. I’ll support it but then I’ll support just about anything if they will just pass it and Obama will sign it.  I am deeply disturbed about the abortion provision, though.  I thought the White House would stick would the formula that abortion is not a part of health care reform and current law would stay in place.

  3. Write a conservative proposal that doesn’t include the most popular part of his original campaign proposal (the public option) as a starting point for negotiations with Republicans, who will refuse everything.

    Maybe they can somehow be persuaded that providing slightly better health care to the unemployed and underemployed is more important than winning back a majority. Because apparently they’re really concerned about that.

    Brilliant! Meanwhile Democratic activists will be highly motivated to sit around apathetically and wait for the plan to be gutted until it fails.

    Then when Democrats lose elections because they couldn’t accomplish anything people actually wanted, Obama can apologize for doing too much, then try to keep appeasing Republicans as they impeach him.

    THIS WILL BE SO MUCH FUN.

  4. Obama says he’ll support the public option – if enough Senators get behind it to make it viable to pass via reconciliation.

    So, call Sen. Udall and tell him to put his name on the letter being circulated by his fellow Colorado Senator.  Call your (Democratic) Representative and see if they can apply some pressure to Udall.

      2. Mr.Norris in his latest HUff post piece  all but leaves the Democratic Party in his criticism of the President. He believes that Sen Bennet conspired with the President to maniulate the base. This is  nothing new from his camp.

        The left wing of the Democratic Party (which somehow believes that Mr.Romanoff is a leftist) will rejoice when and if the new neocons come to power.

        They may as well join the Teabaggers.

    2. A public option would be great, but i doubt it will pass the Senate. If Dem Senators can prove that they’ll get it passed than it’s a different story entirely. We need health reform, i’ll take whatever can get passed at this juncture.  

      1. There isn’t a single significant social advance that passed Congress in a perfect, finished form all at once. Not fair labor, not Social Security, not civil rights, not voting rights, not Medicare. Which is one reason why Bennet keeping the public option debate alive is important, even if it doesn’t make it this time.

    3. According to a whip count I saw, Udall is undecided, and has gotten only a trickle of calls of support.  He is deciding right now.  Call, or visit his office.

  5. …and then cite an article that rightly points out it’s pretty much the same thing they already tried to pass?  Good work Pols.

    This thing isn’t going anywhere.

    1. between the House and Senate bills. Since Democrats have a big majority in both houses, and Republicans have demonstrated they’re not interested in solving the problem, that’s all the compromise that’s needed.

      Heaven forbid we resort to majority rule!  

      1. But let’s be honest with ourselves…this isn’t going to happen.  But PLEASE keep pushing it until November so it’s fresh in everyone’s mind that Democrats just wont give up on something immensely unpopular.

        1. the recent Newsweek poll (sorry, no link) that indicated the following:

          When asked a question about supporting Obamas’ plan, the numbers were 49% Opposed and 40% in favor.

          When asked a question that mentioned only the items in Obamas’ plan but not mentioning him by name, the numbers change significantly to 48% in favor and 43% opposed. So…if need be…I will be happy to send you some catsup. 😉  

  6. but I’ve always wanted single payer. In fact I wanted the Conyers bill that sat in Congress for years (about 50 pages vs. the 2000 pages health care “reform” has become).

    The horrendous proposed increase in premiums coming from the insurance industry (Anthem in CA announced 37% individual plan increases) should underscore the absolute necessity of cost containment.

    We simply cannot ignore the issue currently paying 16% of GNP to health care (other industrialized countries are paying in the range of 8% to 12% with their national health care programs), and its projected to be 22% of GNP by 2016.

    The most effective way to cost containment would be universal single payer. If that’s a “massive government takeover” of the health care sytem, then I’m all for it.  

    1. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure that ineffectual group of self-emasculating “elder statesmen” called the U.S. Senate would ridicule such a solution as being too easy and radical.

      Heck – we can’t even get it done at the State level.

      1. We have a crushing debt in this country with trillions in annual deficits for the forseeable future.

        And with health care costs projected to rise almost to a quarter of GNP in the not too distant future, somethings got to give.

        Let’s not forget that the disintegration of the Soviet Union was caused in large part by the crushing burden of military expenditures approaching 40% of GNP trying to match the US in the Cold War. Our economy was stronger and bigger and was able to absorb the military expenditures – the Soviet Union was not.

        I see the threat of health care costs as a direct and proximate danger to the very existence of the US. You’re right, we need “statesmen” who can look beyond the parochial interests and profits of the medical industrial complex and serve the national interest.  

  7. The most effective way to cost containment would be universal single payer. If that’s a “massive government takeover” of the health care sytem, then I’m all for it.  

    Still, you have to start somewhere.  

  8. I love the rationale for the 37% premium increase on Anthem customers in CA:

    “We had to raise rates because so many younger, healthier customers couldn’t afford premiums so the remaining pool is sicker.”

    Have you EVER heard such an endorsement for single payer?  

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