Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) today prepared to
outline his plan for expanding medical coverage without deepening the federal
deficit, setting the stage for a long-delayed debate on the Senate floor over
legislation to overhaul the nation’s healthcare system.
Reid’s proposal would cover an additional 31 million people
by 2019, according to a senior Democratic aide, who quoted a preliminary
estimate of the legislation by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. That
would boost the percentage of non-elderly Americans with medical insurance from
83% to 94% over the next decade, slightly lower than the 96% that the CBO
estimated would be covered by the healthcare bill that House Democrats passed
last week.
Reid’s legislation – which differs in important other ways
from the House bill – would also cost less, committing the federal government
to $849 billion in new spending to expand coverage over the next decade, the
aide said.
That would be offset by a combination of cuts in federal
Medicare spending and a series of new taxes on healthcare industries and
on wealthy Americans, including a hike in the payroll taxes that upper-income
workers pay for Medicare.
The offsets mean that over the next 10 years, federal deficits
would be $127 billion lower than they would without a healthcare bill, the aide
said the Congressional Budget Office estimated. Deficits would be reduced by a
further $650 billion in the next decade.
Reid’s proposal, which he crafted by combining bills developed
earlier this year by two Senate committees, still faces enormous obstacles.
And Democratic leaders have worked throughout the day to maintain the fragile coalition of conservative and liberal lawmakers
that will be needed to advance a healthcare bill. The first test will come
later this week or early next week when the Senate takes a procedural vote to
begin debate.
But Reid’s gambit, which he plans to discuss with Democratic
senators this evening at a closed door meeting at the Capitol, marks an
important milestone in the party’s drive to pass the most sweeping change to
country healthcare system in more than 40 years.
And at a time of growing unease about federal spending, the
CBO numbers may help Reid as he labors to rally Democrats to overcome
Republican filibusters and push a healthcare bill through the Senate before the
end of the year.
Without any GOP support, all 58 Democrats and the two
independents who caucus with them must hold together to get the required
60-vote supermajority necessary to move any legislation.
If Democrats prevail in the first procedural, lawmakers
could begin considering amendments after Thanksgiving and potentially vote on a
final bill before Christmas. The legislation would then have to be reconciled with
the bill passed in the House before it could be sent to the White House for
President Obama’s signature.
Most lawmakers expect that Reid’s bill will be changed
substantially long before then.
And some lawmakers – including Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and
Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) – have indicated that while they may support a
procedural vote now, they may not support the final bill.
Underscoring the difficult road ahead, Reid spent more than
an hour this afternoon meeting in his office with Nelson and two other
Democrats wary of his health plan – Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Mary
Landrieu of Louisiana.
Vice President Joe Biden also helped with the lobbying
effort, coming to the Capitol this morning to meet with individual
lawmakers and press them for action.
--Noam Levey
