Reid Prepares to Unveil Health Bill as Christmas Deadline Looms

Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid reported “significant progress” toward persuading holdout Senator Ben Nelson to join 59 other senators to back health legislation as Reid’s self-imposed deadline for Christmas passage closes in.
Following several rounds of talks with Nelson and White House aides in his Capitol office, Reid said through a spokesman last night he expected to get the 60 votes needed to move toward final passage of the legislation, the most sweeping changes to the U.S. medical system in four decades.
“We have made significant progress,” Reid spokesman Jim Manley said in the statement. Later today, Reid plans to offer final revisions to the measure and “is confident that it will prevail,” Manley said.
Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat, met with Reid in the majority leader’s office at least twice yesterday, along with White House aides making a last-ditch effort to strike an agreement to move forward toward passage of the bill by Christmas.
“I am not focused on that deadline,” Nelson told reporters after the discussions, which were joined by White House aides Nancy-Ann DeParle, Jim Messina and Pete Rouse. “I am focused on getting this right.”
Three Votes
Once Reid unveils the bill, the senators will take three votes separated by 30-hour intervals over the next week, as the Republicans use every procedural tactic they can to delay a measure they say will raise taxes, hurt insurers and widen the deficit.
Reid’s success in passing the measure largely depends on Nelson, who’s pushing for stronger language to prohibit federal subsidies from being used to fund abortions and says he has a “laundry list” of other concerns.
Nelson last night said he made some gains on changes he is seeking on the expansion of the Medicaid program for low-income Americans, which is financed by state and federal governments.
Still, “there is no deal, no agreement,” he said. He’s prepared to continue talking in the morning and will review different language about preventing government insurance subsidies from being “directly or indirectly used to fund elective abortions,” he said.
Senator Charles Schumer said “all the pieces are starting to fall in place, but we still got a way to go.” The New York senator told reporters as he headed to Reid’s office last night for more discussions that the changes being discussed were “just twists and turns.”
If the Senate passes a bill, it still must be reconciled with a version approved last month in the U.S. House.
No Republicans
Reid and President Barack Obama need Nelson’s support for their top domestic priority because they have no backing from Republicans.
Passage of the bill will require 60 votes to cut off Republican stalling tactics, and Democrats control exactly that number. Leaders of the party described Nelson as the chief holdout.
Nelson and several other lawmakers say they need to see Congressional Budget Office cost estimates and the language changes made by Reid in recent weeks before making a final decision. The CBO analysis may come out as early as today.
As they have worked to lock in votes, Senate leaders have spent the last few days wrangling with the numbers and the proposals.
Insurance Mandate
The latest version of the Senate bill was designed to cover 31 million uninsured Americans and curb medical expenses at a cost of $848 billion over 10 years.
Like the $1 trillion measure passed Nov. 7 by the House, the Senate plan would require all Americans to get health coverage or pay a penalty. It would expand the Medicaid health program for the poor, set up online insurance-purchasing exchanges and provide subsidies for those who need help buying policies.
The only Senate Republican to support the legislation on the committee level, Maine Republican Olympia Snowe, said on Dec. 17 that she told Obama Democrats shouldn’t be moving so fast to pass a bill.
Rushing to passage “doesn’t make sense” for legislation that wouldn’t take effect for four years, she said. Obama told her “he would prefer to move the process forward,” Snowe told reporters. “I was advocating using part of January to focus on issues that need attention.”
She said her chief concerns included a potential increase in Medicare payroll taxes and the bill’s impact on small businesses.
Defying the People
Before Reid and Nelson huddled yesterday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said there was a “good chance” that Democrats “will not be able to get their members to lock arms and walk off the cliff in obvious defiance of the American people” who he said are against the bill.
He and other Republicans also said they would use any method that their disposal to block passage.
Asked if Republicans planned to force the Senate to exhaust time reading the legislation on the floor, Arizona Senator John McCain told reporters yesterday, “I don’t think it would be outrageous to ask for a bill to be read that we haven’t seen that affects one-seventh of our gross national product.”
Nelson told reporters on Dec. 17 that he understands why Reid is pushing senators to act, saying the pressure moves the process along. Still, he said, “I intend to be home Christmas.”