WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats had to delay votes on the first set of amendments to the health care bill Tuesday in the face of stiff Republican opposition, underscoring the fiercely partisan floor debate and threatening the tight timeline for passage.
Party leaders, scrambling to pass a bill by Christmas, had hoped to approve a proposal to expand access to mammograms and other preventive services. Instead, lawmakers spent much of Tuesday tussling over the bill’s potential effect on Medicare.
Democratic leaders propose to offset the cost of expanding insurance coverage to some 31 million people in part by cutting future Medicare payments to hospitals, nursing homes and other providers.
Insurance companies that contract with the federal government to provide Medicare Advantage plans, which offer extra benefits to about 1 in 4 Medicare beneficiaries, also face major cuts. Those plans cost the government substantially more per person than regular Medicare.
Many health care policy experts believe cuts are necessary to make the health care system more efficient and provide incentives for higher-quality care — critical goals if the Medicare program is to remain solvent.
The Senate health care bill has won praise from independent groups such as AARP, the nation’s leading advocate for senior citizens.
But many seniors remain nervous, and Republicans took to the Senate floor Tuesday to renew their claims that the cuts would harm seniors.
“How many times have you heard from senior citizens in your state saying, ‘I paid into this trust fund. I paid for my Medicare all my life. Now it’s going to be cut. How is that fair?’ ” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
The GOP’s charges infuriated Democrats, who pointed out that many Republicans voted for deeper cuts to Medicare in the past. When McCain was running for president, his top aide talked of trimming Medicare spending to fund new tax credits to help Americans buy health benefits.
“Talk about crocodile tears,” Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “Was it not Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, leader of the Republican revolution, that said he wanted Medicare to, quote, ‘wither on the vine’?”
Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe, a centrist from Maine who objects to portions of the bill, also took issue with allegations that the legislation would hurt Medicare beneficiaries.
“There are going to be a lot of rewards for seniors in this, and no reductions in their benefits,” Snowe said. “Ultimately, it buoys the system overall in the future.”
