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Snowe: Finance bill 'solid starting point'
2009-09-22
WASHINGTON - Republican Senator Olympia Snowe says the Finance Committee's health care bill is a "solid starting point" but needs to be improved. The Maine senator is seen as the only Republican on the panel who could end up voting for the bill, so her comments are closely watched. In her opening statement Tuesday she found plenty to like as the committee began work on the 10-year, nearly $900-billion proposal. Snowe praised the bill for holding down costs and taking a stab at medical malpractice reform. She said work was still needed to make sure the required insurance is affordable for people. To accommodate such concerns Chairman Max Baucus has announced he's making changes including lowering a penalty on people who don't comply with a requirement to buy insurance. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. WASHINGTON (AP) -- After months of fruitless bipartisan negotiations, the Senate Finance committee got to work Tuesday on a sweeping health care overhaul that's seen as having the best chance of any plan to make history by delivering on President Barack Obama's top domestic priority. Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., called his 10-year, nearly-$900 billion proposal a "common-sense plan" that takes the best ideas from both sides and can get the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate. "Despite what some may say, this is no 'government takeover' of health care," Baucus said. "Our plan does not include a public option. We did not include an employer mandate. And we have paid for every cent." But Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the panel's ranking Republican, said the White House and Democratic leaders short-circuited the bipartisan talks by imposing a mid-September deadline. "I find it utterly and completely appalling," he said. Grassley criticized many of the plan's key components, from a requirement that all Americans get insurance, to the taxes that would pay for subsidies to make the coverage affordable. He also said the bill falls short in guaranteeing that illegal immigrants won't get government help to buy insurance, as well as in preventing funding for abortion. Senators challenging the Baucus plan already have won concessions that include reducing a penalty for Americans who don't buy insurance, but hundreds of other changes are up for debate. The Finance Committee is the last of five panels to have a say before the full Senate debates legislation. Senators have filed 564 amendments, some of which would make major changes to Baucus' carefully crafted framework. Baucus, who wants to finish by the end of the week, faces the difficult task of keeping the 13 Democrats on board without moving so far to the left that he alienates Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, the only one of the panel's 10 Republicans considered a possible vote for the bill. "It is probably the most important domestic legislation that many of us are going to be working on in our careers and it's very complicated. We want to do it right," Baucus said. The Baucus plan would extend coverage to about 29 million Americans who lack it now, and end onerous insurance company practices, such as charging higher premiums for women and denying coverage to people in poor health. It would make almost everyone buy insurance or pay a fee, while expanding Medicaid to cover more low-income people and providing subsidies to many in the middle class. It would create new online exchanges where small businesses and people without government or employer-provided insurance could shop for plans and compare prices. Release of the bill last week gave a boost to Obama's health care agenda after a summer of angry town hall meetings, though plenty of political and policy hurdles remain before Congress could send a bill to the president. A number of committee Democrats had raised concerns about whether subsidies in Baucus' bill are generous enough to make insurance truly affordable for low-income people. There also are worries about a new tax on high-cost insurance plans, which critics fear would hit some middle-class workers, including many union members in risky occupations such as mining and police work. Those concerns were shared by Snowe, whose support could become even more critical if legislation makes it to the Senate floor, where Democrats need 60 votes to pass the bill. Senators offered multiple amendments on both issues and Baucus was incorporating some of the approaches in revised legislation he'll offer the committee. Baucus said he is considering lowering the penalty of up to $3,800 his bill would levy on households that don't buy insurance. Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota, a key Finance Democrat, said Baucus also is looking at ways to allow more middle-class families to qualify for subsidies by limiting what they pay in premiums. Senators are also considering adjusting the new tax on high-value insurance -- now set to hit plans valued at $21,000 for a family and $8,000 for an individual. The changes could add to the cost of the bill, initially estimated at $856 billion over 10 years. But there is some wiggle room, since the original proposal generated more money than it spent. Baucus' legislation is the most conservative, cheapest and closely watched of the health care bills in Congress. The Finance Committee has a moderate makeup that resembles the Senate as a whole, so legislation that passes Finance could find favor on the Senate floor. Affordability is hardly the only sticking point. Liberals like Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., want to include a new public insurance plan to compete with the private market. Baucus included nonprofit co-ops instead, and Rockefeller plans to try to delete those and add a public plan. Committee Republicans, for their part, have readied amendments to strike core portions of the bill and replace them with GOP priorities such as caps on medical malpractice payouts.
Dem moderates challenge Reid on health care plan (2009-10-27)Senators reject stronger anti-abortion language (2009-09-30)Snowe: Finance bill 'solid starting point' (2009-09-22)FACT CHECK: Coverage requirement enforced with tax (2009-09-22)Toughest test coming up for health care overhaul (2009-09-19)
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