The Senate Finance Committee has approved an $829 billion health care reform bill on a 14-9 vote, with Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe the only Republican who voted “yes.”
The vote moves President Barack Obama’s goal of overhauling the nation’s health care system one step closer to reality.
The bill would require all Americans to own health insurance or pay a fine of up to $1,500 per family. It doesn’t require employers to offer health coverage – as the House version of the bill does – and would create health-care co-operatives for purchasing insurance, not the publicly run health insurance option many liberals hoped for.
Now Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will huddle with Finance Chairman Max Baucus and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) of the Senate Health committee to meld the Finance and Health bills. White House aides are expected to be part of those meetings, as Obama’s team steps up its involvement in the health-care talks.
Then the Senate bill would have to be merged with a House version that includes the public option and a different way to paying for health reform – one of the key differences between the bills. The House would pay for health reform with a so-called millionaires’ tax on families earning at least $1 million. The Senate would use an excise tax on insurers who offer so-called Cadillac plans worth at least $21,000 per family.
Tuesday’s vote is a major victory for Baucus, who has withstood criticism from progressives in the Democratic party who said his bill wasn’t liberal enough – because it omitted the public health insurance option – even as Baucus argued that his legislation has the best chance of passing the Senate.
Baucus’s hand was strengthened markedly when Snowe became the only Senate Republican to vote for health reform —- ending weeks of speculation about whether any Republicans would sign onto the Democratic reform bill.
“Is this bill all that I want? Far from it. Is it all that it could be? No,” Snowe said. “But when history calls, history calls. And I happen to think that the consequences of inaction dictate the urgency of Congress to take every opportunity to demonstrate its capacity to solve the monumental issues of our time.”
She said she supports the bill with reservations, and shares the Republican concerns about how Democrats will shape the bill after it leaves the committee.
In a subtle warning, Snowe said: “My vote today is my vote today, it doesn’t forecast what my vote will be tomorrow.”
Snowe’s vote was the only mystery surrounding the vote Tuesday in the Finance Committee. Baucus worked hard for Snowe’s vote, spending hours in recent days and weeks trying to allay her concerns.
He was practically speechless after Snowe finished her statement. “Thanks senator, for that thoughtful statement,” Baucus said, offering an understatement that drew chuckles from the audience in the hearing room.
It was clearly the outcome Baucus was rooting for, as he made a lot of concessions to bring her on board, including cutting the no-insurance penalties by more than half. The bipartisan nod Snowe brings to the bill strengthens Baucus’s hand as he, Reid and Dodd merge the Health and Finance committee bills.
Snowe’s buy-in could make it easier for Baucus and Reid to sell reform to moderate Democrats — think Sens. Mary Landrieu (La.), Ben Nelson (Neb.) and Evan Bayh (Ind.) — who are arguably more conservative than their colleague from Maine.
And it positions Snowe to grab a bigger seat at the decision-making table as Reid crafts a bill to send to the Senate floor. Not to mention, the headlines all laud Baucus for landing a Republican vote and give Democrats the “big mo.”
Democrats could overplay their hands, however: Look for Republicans to push back hard against any narrative that suggests a solitary GOP vote suddenly makes the bill bipartisan.
Snowe’s announcement came several hours into the meeting – and a vote remains a potentially a few hours away. The action Tuesday is expected to give Obama the best chance for enacting universal health care coverage since Theodore Roosevelt proposed it during the 1912 campaign.
“This is our opportunity to make history,” Baucus said. “Our actions here will determine whether we extend better health care to more Americans.”
Reid will now begin the tough work of merging the Finance bill with a more liberal version passed by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Democratic leaders will no longer be able to put off decisions on issues that divide the party – chief among them, establishing a government insurance plan to compete with private insurers.
Of the five committees considering health care bills, the Senate Finance Committee was the toughest forum to pass the Democratic version of health care reform. Baucus spent months trying to negotiate a bipartisan compromise, far longer than congressional leaders and the White House would have liked. In seeking a moderate approach, Baucus was skewered on the left.
Democrats acknowledged problems with the proposal. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said he wants a mandate on employers to provide health insurance. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said the bill doesn’t provide enough insurance choices for consumers. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) criticized the lack of a government insurance plan.
But even some of Baucus’s toughest Democratic critics described the bill as a major step in the push for health care reform. Kerry said it will “significantly improve the coverage of millions of Americans.” Menendez said the bill was fair to consumers and families.
The debate took on familiar contours. Democrats argued that something needs to be done, and passed through the committee, even if the bill in front of them falls short. Republicans argued that the bill fails to meet the president’s promises, and Democrats were eager to ram something through Congress.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) acknowledged the bill contains provisions that are bipartisan. “There is a lot in the bill that is just a consensus of what needs to be done,” he said.
But repeating the concern he’s had for months about the process, Grassley said Democratic Senate leaders will shape the bill into a more liberal version during the merger with the Senate health committee bill.
“With this markup nearing its conclusion we can now see clearly that the bill continues its march leftward,” said Grassley, the committee's ranking Republican.
Democrats took multiple hits at a report commissioned by America’s Health Insurance Plans, while Republicans largely kept their distance from. Kerry launched the first attack, making plain that Democrats will use it to vilify the insurance industry as a greedy, dishonest player that is only out for its own bottom line.
“The insurance industry ought to be ashamed of this report,” Kerry said, portraying it reason to create a government insurance plan -- to keep the industry honest.
Wyden continued to voice his concern that not everyone will be allowed to participate in the insurance exchanges that are supposed to help people buy insurance. People, Wyden said, are not holding rallies in support of exemptions, but in support of coverage.
“People want coverage,” Wyden said. “They want coverage to be affordable.”
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