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Published: July 27, 2009
Updated 1 hour ago
Six bipartisan members of the Senate Finance Committee have reached an agreement on healthcare reforms that eschews the president’s insistence on a low-cost, public option, a published report said Monday evening. The plan also drops the requirement for employers to provide their workers’ insurance.
Though significantly stripped down from prior versions, the group’s compromise would prevent any insurance company from denying coverage and would block higher premiums for patients with pre-existing conditions, the Associated Press reported.
The senators’ effort was cheered by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and drug company lobbying group PhRMA, the report noted.
“Obama’s top domestic priority has suffered numerous setbacks in recent weeks, and Republicans have stepped up their criticism,” AP continued. “A Senate vote has been postponed until September. Administration and Democratic leaders hope to show significant progress before lawmakers begin their monthlong recess in hopes of regaining momentum.
“In the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said, ‘We’re on schedule to do it now or do it whenever,’ when asked whether the House would complete its bill before lawmakers leave at the end of the week. Democrats called a meeting of all their House members late Monday afternoon.”
The reported agreement is nowhere near final and no legislative language from the Senate has been made available.
Obama wants Congress to approve his health care reform proposals by the end of the year in order to fulfill one of his key campaign promises — ideally providing health care to the 46 million Americans, some 15 percent of the population, who currently do not have any medical coverage.
The President Obama also hopes to cut in half runaway healthcare expenditures which, if unchecked, are forecast to gobble up one-fifth of US gross domestic product by 2013.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), speaking to reporters last Thursday, said there will be no vote on healthcare in the Senate at-large before Congress leaves session during the month of August. He said the decision was made mere hours after the president took his message to the American people during a televised, prime-time press conference.
“The Nevada Democrat says the decision to delay a vote was made Wednesday night in the hopes of getting a final bipartisan bill,” reported the Associated Press.
Senate Republicans asked for the delay “so the decision was made to give them more time,” said Reid.
With AFP.
