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February 23, 2010 in Nation/World
Obama offers up health reform
President ends near-silence with 10-year, $1 trillion proposal
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Monday launched a last-ditch effort to revive health care legislation that’s unlikely to gain Republican support but may restore Democratic momentum for the bill by placing the president squarely at the center of the messy process of drafting legislation.
“It sends a clear signal what he’s comfortable with,” said Stephen Zuckerman, a senior fellow at Washington’s Urban Institute, a research group.
Democratic loyalists were enthusiastic, viewing Obama’s nearly $1 trillion proposal as a sign that his yearlong reluctance to engage in shaping the bill had ended.
“We’re very pleased to see the president being more forceful in his leadership,” said Ralph Neas, who heads the National Coalition on Health Care, an advocacy group. “He is the one indispensable player in this mix.”
Obama’s blueprint, or a bipartisan summit to discuss health care scheduled for Thursday, seemed unlikely to trigger a new bipartisan effort to pass a bill, however. Republicans reacted bitterly to the proposal.
“The president has crippled the credibility of this week’s summit by proposing the same massive government takeover of health care based on a partisan bill the American people have already rejected,” said House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky branded the Obama plan “another partisan, back-room bill.”
Republicans want the president to start over. Forget it, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said.
“Starting over makes no sense,” he said.
Obama’s proposal, which the White House said would cut the budget deficit by $100 billion over 10 years – a figure that couldn’t be verified independently – borrows heavily from legislation that the Senate and House of Representatives passed last year, but with some significant changes.
Most Americans would have to get insurance coverage or face penalties, and there would be federal help for lower-income families who struggle to afford premiums.
The president, however, axed the so-called “public option” of a government-run insurance plan, which had drawn opposition from moderates and conservatives.
He also scaled back the tax on high-end policies, which labor unions had opposed. Under Obama’s proposal the tax wouldn’t go into effect until 2018, five years later than it would under the bill the Senate passed. He also increased the premium levels at which the tax would kick in to $10,200 for singles and $27,500 for families.
That would cut the amount of money the tax would raise from $150 billion to about $30 billion through the end of the decade.
Obama would keep the Senate-passed plan’s Medicare tax increase on individual wages above $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples, which would raise the current rate from 1.45 percent to 2.35 percent. He would add a 2.9 percent assessment at that level for income from interest, dividends, annuities, royalties and rents.
The president’s proposal has another new feature: The federal government, working with state officials, would be able to roll back health insurance premium increases, at least for a while. Under the proposal, federal and state authorities work together, and “if a rate increase is unreasonable and unjustified, health insurers must lower premiums, provide rebates or take other actions to make premiums affordable.”
In addition, insurers could be required to provide rebates if they were found to be spending too much on administrative costs and advertising.
The chief value of the plan, however, analysts said, is the role that Obama is assuming after letting Congress craft its own legislation, a strategy that backfired by making Washington look dysfunctional.
That may help Democrats maintain unity on the proposed overhaul, something that has been difficult despite them controlling 59 of the Senate’s 100 seats and 255 of the House’s 435 seats.
“Democrats will have more comfort now in getting behind a plan,” said Len Nichols, the director of the health policy program at the New America Foundation, a public policy institute.
Said Neas, “There have been those on the Hill who have been waiting for the president to say, ‘Here’s what I want.’ ”
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Scoutster on February 23 at 6:58 a.m.
So, instead of a new car we might get a used one instead.
Go Obama. And in any democracy, from line leader in 2nd grade to the US Senate, 50% plus 1 makes a majority. Get it done!
bdr on February 23 at 9:33 a.m.
Your right scoutster…51 is the majority needed to pass a reconciled bill. (republicans seem to forget they too are part of this process). Mr Brown might pleasantly vote yes with the demos on this bill. (with 35% increases in medical costs this year alone staring Republicans in the face,, health reform is a do or die situation be damned if you don’t!)
We don’t need more hallow words from Republicans who think government cant run anything right……..!
Its quite obvious now in 2010 the private sector cant do anything right either……..over 80% of the business that gave GW Bush funds for election……are now bankrupt.
But yet government programs are still funded and running smooth as ever.
Coffee on February 23 at 1:40 p.m.
My cost for health insurance went down this year. In most states insurance companies can not raise rates without state insurance commission approval. Our state has the right to reform health care right now. It could do tort reform, allow all health insurance companies to sell insurance here. Provide basic health to the poor. That is basic health if you want a cadillac plan get job. If the majority of our state politicians were not just useless sacks of skin they could have a reasonable health care plan for our state within a few months.