Waxman gets deal on health bill
Waxman gets deal on health bill
July 31, 2009
By: Patrick O'Connor
Liberal and conservative Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce panel struck a late-night deal Friday that will allow them to move a sweeping health care bill out of the committee after a two-week deadlock that put its fate in serious doubt.
Waxman gets deal on health bill
July 31, 2009
By: Patrick O'Connor
Liberal and conservative Democrats on the House Energy and Commercepanel struck a late-night deal Friday that will allow them to move asweeping health care bill out of the committee after a two-weekdeadlock that put its fate in serious doubt.
The Blue Dog Democrats, the linchpin in the House health care debate, have agreed to find billions in additional cuts that will allow their liberal colleagues to restore $50 billion to $65 billion in subsidies set aside to help middle-income families purchase health care.
This final agreement should clear the way for committee passage later today. Energy and Commerce is the last of the three House committees to consider the bill, so passage will put the package in the hands of party leaders for a titanic fight when Congress returns in the fall over the government's role in health care.
"Last night and today, we agreed we need to pull together," Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) told reporters shortly before he resumed committee debate over the bill.
Moderates and liberals on the committee will offer a package during committee consideration that will make changes the Blue Dogs secured in a deal with Waxman earlier this week. The amendment will also include a liberal priority: reducing the premiums on households making between $77,000 to $88,000 to pay for required insurance coverage. Waxman did not give details about the additional cuts.
The combined amendment "will accomplish a number of goals," Waxman said.
The two sides struck their deal early Friday morning, after Energy and Commerce wrapped up its late-night deliberations.
The Blue Dogs preserved one of their main objectives: de-coupling the so-called public plans from Medicare, giving health care providers the right to negotiate payments with the government.
For the moderates, the importance of the overarching legislation trumped ideological divides.
After announcing the agreement with liberals, Indiana Rep. Baron Hill, a key Blue Dog in the negotiations, said: "We need to get this done."
Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette, who fought a concession to raise the premiums these households would pay, said afterward that the deal means the concessions Waxman granted the Blue Dogs won't be "paid for on the backs of some of the people who can't afford health insurance now."
"This is an historic moment," said California Rep. Lois Capps, who had pushed to restore the lower premiums.
But changes are sure to roil the party again once the bill moves the House floor and Democratic leaders marry this measure to ones passed by the Education and Labor and Ways and Means committees.
"This is one step in a long and complex legislative process," said Ohio Rep. Zack Space.
The Friday deal should allow the panel to wrap up its work right in time for members to leave town for the five-week August recess. Shortly after he opened the Friday session, Waxman predicted he would conclude the debate on his committee by 2 o'clock this afternoon.