WaPo: Finance Committee Closer to Healthcare Deal Which Would Abandon Public Option

[flpoljunkie]

Senators Closer To Health Package
Bipartisan Talks On Reform Move Toward Center

By Shailagh Murray and Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, August 6, 2009

Senate negotiators are inching toward bipartisan agreement on a health-care plan that seeks middle ground on some of the thorniest issues facing Congress, offering the fragile outlines of a legislative consensus even as the political battle over reform intensifies outside Washington.

The emerging Finance Committee bill would shave about $100 billion off the projected trillion-dollar cost of the legislation over the next decade and eventually provide coverage to 94 percent of Americans, according to participants in the talks. It would expand Medicaid, crack down on insurers, abandon the government insurance option that President Obama is seeking and, for the first time, tax health-care benefits under the most generous plans. Backers say the bill would also offer the only concrete plan before Congress for reining in the skyrocketing cost of federal health programs over the long term.

Three Democrats and three Republicans from the Senate Finance Committee will brief Obama on Thursday about the progress of their sometimes arduous talks, which are now set to extend through the August recess. The negotiators are holding the details close as they continue to debate key issues, and it could be a challenge for them to meet the Sept. 15 deadline set by the committee's chairman, Max Baucus (D-Mont.), for a deal.

Even if the partnership does not result in legislation, Democratic leaders are already contemplating ways to preserve much of what it produces as they look to unite their party and pick up Republican votes when the health-care debate moves to the Senate floor in the fall. The Finance Committee coalition is seeking compromise on some of the most complex issues facing Congress, including how to compel employers to continue providing insurance to their workers; how to more fairly distribute government subsidies for coverage; and who and how many should be allowed to remain uninsured.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/05/AR2009080503996_pf.html

[SpartanDem]

1. Just report the damn bill out already

[quantass]

2. Funny this pretend negotiations....the results are predictable so why the holdup

Its funny that they pretend to be trying to work out a deal for weeks now and going until September when everyone knows what the final bill proposal will be....i could have written this deal a month ago and saved the tax payers money in bullshit closed door negotiations. This committee is bought and paid for by the lobbyists and i expect nothing less than the deal they are finally letting out....what a waste of time.

[WatchWhatISay]

3. This is why we aren't at the townhall meetings shouting back

If Obama were to talk about insisting that a public option be part of the package, I'd be at those meetings fighting back against the angry right.

[DrToast]

4. I'm going to the town hall near me, but I think you're right

The most passionate supporters of health care reform feel a bit letdown by the proposed legislation.

Meanwhile, on the other side you've got people convinced Obama is trying to kill grandma, so they're frothing at the mouth over this.

[babylonsister]

5. It's the WaPo. They're becoming, to me, like politico. I'll wait. nt

[Jakes Progress]

6. Oh, darn, There's this little tug.

No, now its a definite hole. Gosh it's a rip.

Yep. That seems to have torn it.

[still_one]

7. Who gave these Senators from some of the least populous states the authority

to decide what the healthcare plan for the rest of us should look like?

[amandabeech]

8. From the article: "With employers paying less for insurance,

tax analysts predict, they would pay workers more in wages, increasing income tax collections by as much as $180 billion over the next decade."

Who thinks that this will actually happen? Is this indicative of the thinking going on with respect to this bill?

As an earlier poster said, it's easier to get out in support of something when you know what it is and like it.

[Teaser]

9. we all know the finance bill won't have a public option

that's a given. Just get it out on the floor so we can fix it.

[Pirate Smile]

10. Finance Cmte Bill isn't the final bill. It will be combined with the HELP Bill which DOES include

a Public Option AND THEN combined with the House Bill which ALSO INCLUDES a public option.

Just get it out of that friggin committee even if that 1 out of the 5 Committee Bills doesn't include the Public Option. Public Option will be in the Final Legislation. That is all that matters.

[liberalpragmatist]

11. Just get the fucking bill out of committee

[Bleacher Creature]

12. Shailagh Murray? She is notorious for awful and lax writing.

Google her name and you will see example after example of lax reporting. Remember, she was the "reporter" who kept stating that the "best" and "quickest" solution to the Franken-Coleman court battle was a revote.

[Patsy Stone]

13. The WaPo has no source for that info, huh?

What a surprise...

[uponit7771]

14. ...they have have a source alright, it's called their ass.

[Cha]

15. WaPo is a disinformation rag..

Fired Dan Froomkin and hired what facist tool?..I forget.