Democrats Stall Obama's Healthcare Reform
Blue Dog Democrats in the House have prevented Pelosi from bringing legislation to the floor
The real story now on healthcare reform is not the partisan bickering, which tends to dominate the news coverage, but something more cerebral: the tension between President Obama's call for action and many lawmakers' concerns that they have yet to find a winning policy formula for reform.
In his prime-time news conference last Wednesday, Obama laid out some absolutes. "The bill I sign must slow the growth of healthcare costs," he said, noting that Democrats had come up with proposals that would "change incentives so that doctors and nurses are free to give patients the best care, just not the most expensive care."
But that's only part of the story. Inside Congress and the White House, many are in fact still grappling with doubts about the strength of these and other proposals. As of last week, the White House Council of Economic Advisers wascalling up policy experts to get their take on potential ideas, and senators are saying they need more time. So it was no big surprise when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid decided last week that the Senate would not begin debating a bill until September, thereby conceding Obama's August deadline would not be met.
Though much has been written on the labyrinthine subject of healthcare policy, there are still many unknowns, and it is partly these unknowns that are giving policymakers pause. As Democrats craft their bills, they are eyeing ideas being developed and tested in hospitals and physicians' offices around the country, and they are trying to figure out not only if these creative approaches to medicine work but also their potential savings. "There are a lot of innovative things happening around the country," says David Harlow, who runs a health law practice in Boston and has helped shape Massachusetts health laws. "What we are talking about is a whole series of local experiments" that Washington is considering adopting.
The White House has called for creating a new panel of doctors and experts to look for ways to cut Medicare spending. But Congress is busy reviewing all sorts of other proposals. There is talk about giving bonuses to doctors and hospitals that provide higher-quality care. There is talk about rewarding healthy workers with lower premiums. And there is talk about testing out new business models that, in theory, let doctors spend more time with patients and less time on billing.
This trying search for ways to change how money is spent on healthcare got a major jolt this month, when Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, testified that the House's bill would not achieve "the sort of fundamental change" needed to curb rising costs. The political world lit up as if a mild-mannered house guest had just slapped his host in the face.
Yet Elmendorf's comments should not have been all that shocking to anyone following the debate. The fiscally conservative "blue dog" Democrats had said as much the week before. In an angry letter to Democratic congressional leaders, they had argued that the bill being put forward failed to make substantive changes. "We must be much more aggressive in bending the cost curve," they wrote. "We cannot simply 'add' new consumers to a broken system."
Last week, after a slew of rough headlines for Democratic leaders, blue dogs finally got an audience, and they've effectively prevented House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from bringing legislation to the floor. The House Energy and Commerce Committee, with 36 Democrats, including seven blue dogs, had been scheduled to meet all last week to try to approve the House bill. But after last Monday's boisterous session, which lasted late into the night at the urging of committee Chairman Henry Waxman, plans changed. The following day Obama summoned the panel to the White House, and scheduled committee meetings were canceled in favor of private deliberations.
Negotiations are continuing this week. As of Tuesday morning, the blue dogs were reviewing a "compromise" offer from Waxman. Meanwhile, the Senate Finance Committee, led by Sen. Max Baucus, is still deliberating behind closed doors, trying to hammer out a bipartisan deal with Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley and others.
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Reader Comments
Health care bill for all
If the health care that the President and all his cabinet is so great why are they not on it also.
Are they not American citzen also.
If the laws they pass are so great why are they not willing to use them. I think " the President made the statement We are not talking about me. We are talking about You what makes us any Less then you Mr. President I have the best health insurance in the world.
Why is it that if you want change for all then start at home.
Not taking vacations using money that could be spent on health care. Stop Nancy from using tax money to travel back and forth to her home state.
Lets get back to where the goverment for the people by the people .
Not by the Goverment.
Thank you
PENNY
health care reform
this is so far out not even a third grader in the U. S. would believe this trash, which lines up with the stimulas trash that has already been wasted and for nothing, except the part of the stimulas that is in the hands of the wrong people.we need more blue dogs that will try to slow all of the spending down to a halt, the U. S. is about as low as it can get, it is time to start bringing the U. S. back up. this can happen if we can get our congress people to stop taking care of themselves and start taking care of the U. S. citizen first. this health care what ever you want to call it is a thorn in the side of every U. S. citizen, because the health care can be taken care of with less than 2 billion dollars, along with every other hand out department in the U. S. governments arsenal, food stamps, well fare, Social Security (Social Security is not a hand out, it was earned by alot of people), HUD housing, the list can go on, plus help every state, yes all 50 of them come out with plenty of money for whatever needs arise. Pay our national debt off in less than 4 years, make our dollar worth more than the Euro or the pound, plus make more good jobs than the stimulas ever couls, because the stimulas money is in the hands of people who do not need it or deserve it, and the stimulas money will never trickle down to where it is supposed to be. It is ashame that our congress people can not learn to try to use small amounts of money before they trash and waste a trillion or so dollars.
wow
I have to be honest listening to some of you socialites speak about how racist the republican party is must forget about all those african americans who also are republican. You fall right in line with everyone else who in fact themselves are not racist, oh no, because you don't even know the true meaning of the word because your to ignorant, instead you are a profiler. You see, if it were solely the republicans just objecting Obama's plan then everything would pass and life would go on as we know it because, we do not have the majority vote. So, you read an article the singles out "blue dog" democrats aka (people that think for themselves and aren't just sheep) for not helping to further the utter downfall of our country and you turn against your own like wolves profiling them and putting them in a column calling them racists! Hitler was a racist, do you remember Hitler? Let me remind you, he was the guy that killed over 6 million jews (people of his own country) to further his so-called master race! What have the republicans or even these blue dog dems done that you could even compare to that....? Nothing, however...you socialist, non-thinking, sheep driven idiots that call yourselves democrats allow a man to become president who openly admitted that he himself is a racist, was under the pastoral care of a racist and blasphemist. A president that bowed down to the king of a country that is known and openly funds terrorist organizations in which our wonderful men and women of the military in which you are so lucky to have serving you are currently fighting and dying against for you!!! You the democrat socialist that approve and fund abortion and their clinics and want to make it so a child, a minor can without the approval or say so of there God-given and appointed parents can take and have a procedure done to themselves in which could harm or even kill them, that could have serious side affects ranging from physical to pschyological for the rest of their lives! You the democrats that claim education is top priority yet I live in a state where i've watched schools by the dozens be closed down because funding was cut to save money, EDUCATION was the first place funding was cut, primarily from schools located in districts in which are referred to as the "ghetto" where the majority population was primarily african-american, but yeah republicans are racist! You get on here and mouth off because you think you know what your talking about when all your doing is proving a point that America hasn't come that far and will continue down this same path if people continue to think and teach these values to others. Your always waiting for someone else to come up with the solution and answers without having to get involved yourself but, yet want to reap all the benefits still...? This way of life will never work and will create a very bleak and unresponsible youth that will always be looking the other way and pointing fingers rather than solving issues.Sad
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