Sen. Christopher Dodd (D) of Connecticut (r.) presides over a markup meeting for the healthcare bill of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Wednesday on Capitol Hill.
(Charles Dharapak/AP)Photos (1 of 1)
GOP senator: Obama’s public healthcare plan is dead
Estimates that a government-run plan could cost $1.6 trillion mean it won't pass Congress, said Sen. Lindsey Graham Sunday.
By Mark Sappenfield | Staff writer/ June 21, 2009 edition
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday that this week brought to an end President Obama’s deepest wishes for healthcare reform.
New cost estimates released this week, which suggest that one proposed government-run healthcare option would cost $1.6 trillion and fail to cover two-thirds of the nation’s uninsured, was a “death blow,” he said on ABC News’ “This Week.”
The statement is a typical inside-the-Beltway flourish of partisan rhetoric. But it hints at the Republicans’ increasingly hardening line and the enormity of Mr. Obama’s task.
Though Democrats hold a strong majority in both houses of Congress, major legislation typically needs at least some bipartisan support to secure passage. It was always going to be hard to persuade Republicans to create a government-run healthcare program to compete with private companies and, in theory, drive healthcare costs down – an idea contrary to the GOP’s small-government-is-better mantra.
Last week made it even harder.
Two different sets of numbers will give the Republicans renewed resolve.
First, the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate that a Senate Health Committee plan would cost $1.6 trillion gave Republicans a fresh opportunity to assail healthcare reform as a financial disaster in the making.
Second, a poll released last week suggested that Obama’s honeymoon with the American public is ending. His approval rating fell to 56 percent, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released Wednesday. Significantly, 60 percent of respondents said the president had not developed a clear plan to deal with deficits.
Healthcare legislation on Capitol Hill is still in its formative stages. Senate democrats argued that the Health Committee plan is incomplete, and that cost savings would be factored in later. Moreover, two other proposals are in the works: House Democrats introduced their own bill last week – though without cost figures – and the Senate Finance Committee is expected to release its plan later this summer.
But the urgency Obama is placing upon reform suggests that, sooner rather than later, he might have to give some greater guidance as to what he wants – or might be willing to accept.
In Green Bay, Wis., two weeks ago, Obama said he would not take a “my way or the highway” approach to reform. On Sunday, Senator Graham hinted at the option likely to be more palatable to Republicans: a co-op system that allows individuals and small businesses to join together in order to bargain for better healthcare prices.
Proponents of the Obama plan say co-ops would not provide enough competition – and therefore would not sufficiently drive down costs.
But Republicans and moderate Democrats like Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota are inclined to see them as a compromise. Senator Conrad said on CNN last week that he did not think Obama could pass healthcare reform with a government-run option.
Speaking about opposition to a government-run option, Graham said Sunday: “You’ve got Senator Conrad talking about a co-op…. So yes, I think this idea needs to go away and replace it with something maybe like Kent Conrad’s proposal.”
Comments
2. hsr0601 | 06.22.09
As we know, the public option currently being discussed is modeled after Massachusetts Plan, under which about 97% of all Massachusetts residents are now covered. However, in recent estimates, CBO left out two crucial features, including a ‘public health insurance option’ and ‘employer mandate and an individual mandate’. The estimates with ‘no employer mandate and an individual mandate’ ended up with 36 million uninsured.
By contrast, in case the proposed provisions with respect to the strong public option, medical IT, increased efforts in prevention, and a broader array of cost-saving plans and beyond add to the Massachusetts Plan with the provision of employer mandate and an individual mandate, the cost containment does not matter at all. And most importantly, the promising stem cell research is making its way.
To date, private insurers have coexisted profitably with Medicare and Medicaid for many years.
Basically, healthy society leads to better productivity and better performance.
3. benbarr | 06.22.09
i believe that all the figures are phoney as usual to make each position as if it is the only one that will work.
4. Ralph Courville | 06.22.09
The gov can’t manage Social Security or Medicare, what makes them think they can run Personal Private health care. If there are so many uninsured that want health care and don’t want to pay for it or can’t afford it or are “ILLEGAL”, then let them share in the U.S. Legislature’s, Executive’s, and Judicial Health care plans and let those employees in their respective branches pay for them out of their own pockets that we fill with our income taxes.
5. eric stewar | 06.23.09
give the people there money and let them shop. Health care need to be treated like shopping for anything else.
6. Jane M. | 06.26.09
Health care reform needs to start from the bottom up. There is so much abuse of the health care system. Starting from people taking ambulances because they have run out of Tylenol. (TRUE) From people using Emergency Rooms as Primary Health Care, because they CAN and don’t have to pay a dime out of their pockets. They take that dime directly from mine. If you have 2 arms, 2 legs, and any portion of a brain, YOU SHOULD WORK. That is what Government should enforce, not the entitlement ethic so prominent today.
If the abuses were stopped, health care could be affordable.
7. Robert Coulter | 06.26.09
Remember, the whole issue is about the COST of healthcare being way too high relative to GDP. Yet, over and over again, articles and news shows want to focus on something else like how to pay for healthcare reform (so the problem is cost but I have to pay more?!).
REAL Healthcare reform cannot occur with the approval of the health care / health insurance industry. The only thing that they will agree on is the collection of more taxes and fees to feed their industry. Unfortunately, based on what I am seeing in the news, they look to get their way.
Congress and President Obama will ask them pretty please to reduce costs. They will say give us more money and we will consider it. Or at least think about it. They think about it up to the point they get the extra money.
8. su danhir | 07.22.09
let the entire congress agree to go on public healthcare before ANY OTHER AMERICAN even considers it. i have read parts of this nightmare bill and it’s bnothing more than a power grab. if you like the insurance you have, on page 16 there is a provision that will eliminate it. you CAN’T keep it!obama lied. there are other things that are even worse in this bill.
9. Unemployed WASP | 07.29.09
This is terrible. Health insurance will continue to rise more than three times faster than compensation leaving more and more Americans without any medical care or materially underinsured. They will twist in the wind and end up on SSI instead of being restored and sent back into the work place to pay more taxes. What a tragedy.
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1. khille | 06.22.09
Why, if we already pay more than 50 percent more than the next most expensive country - Norway - for health care, should a solution cost $1 Trillion.
Reform should save money - then consider paying more to insure those left out. I bet the pool of uninsured will shrink if we fix the problems with the existing system rather than overinflating it.