The Senate Finance Committee was the last of five House and Senate panels with jurisdiction on health reform to act on overhaul legislation. Here’s what happens next:
IN THE SENATE: Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., must merge the Finance Committee bill with a more liberal version passed by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Reid will do the work in closed sessions with Senate Finance chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., who presided over the health committee. Key White House aides including Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel will be in close consultation.
Reid will face numerous crosscurrents as he aims to produce a bill that can attract 60 votes in the Senate, the number needed to overcome a Republican filibuster. A key question is whether he includes any version of a provision to allow the government to sell insurance in competition with the private market, something that’s supported by liberals but viewed skeptically by some moderate Democrats and uniformly opposed by Republicans.
The Finance bill does not include such a so-called public plan, while the health committee’s bill does.
Reid is aiming to finish the merger process in time to begin debate the week of Oct. 26.
IN THE HOUSE: Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other Democratic leaders have been working for weeks to combine bills approved by three committees over the summer. Pelosi has been struggling to satisfy the concerns of moderate and fiscally conservative Democrats in her caucus without alienating liberals.
Disputes have centered on the shape of a new government insurance plan that would compete with the private market, Pelosi’s plan to pay for the bill by taxing high-income Americans and regional disparities in Medicare reimbursements. Disagreements also center on language preventing federal funds for abortions and keeping illegal immigrants from getting government-funded coverage.
Pelosi is aiming to begin floor debate this month.
IN THE WHITE HOUSE: President Barack Obama is aiming to sign a health-overhaul bill by year’s end.
Obama left much of the bill-writing work to lawmakers, though top aides were closely involved. He will have a critical role to play in the days ahead. Most important, he’ll act as cajoler in chief, reaching out to wavering lawmakers to shore up their support and using his bully pulpit to rally public sentiment.
