Reports: Dems Need Votes for Health Care; Deficit Increase Likely
March 19, 2010 – With President Barack Obama having postponed his planned trip to Asia to focus on a planned Sunday vote on changing the nation’s health care system, several news reports indicate Democrats need six more votes to approve a controversial Senate health care bill but might be dishonest about alleged cost savings.
Obama today announced Democrats don’t have the 216 votes necessary to approve the Senate health care bill and subject it to the reconciliation process as of this morning, but Obama and leading Democrats are attempting to gain the necessary votes from more than a dozen House Democrats yet to decide how they would vote, Bloomberg News reported today. Several Democrats oppose federal funding for abortion provided in the Senate health care bill; others oppose a proposed tax on high-end health insurance plans. And some members of the Hispanic caucus have said they might not support the measure due to its banning illegal immigrants from purchasing health insurance through proposed health insurance exchanges.
If the Senate bill is approved, Democrats want to use a rare reconciliation process to iron out fiscal differences between the House and Senate versions, but some pundits suggest Democrats are planning to do so illegally. Reconciliation only can be used for reducing federal deficits, and an unofficial Congressional Budget Office report announced yesterday suggests proposed changes might save the federal government some $138 billion over 10 years while extending health insurance coverage to an estimated 32 million people currently without health insurance. But Congressional Budget Office officials cautioned the analysis was only a preliminary one and needed additional analysis before an official report can be issued.
Leading Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate publicly are using the unofficial Congressional Budget Office analysis as leverage to continue with the reconciliation process, but a controversial March 18 internal memorandum allegedly circulated among House Democrats and obtained by Capitol Hill reporters suggests Democrats are misleading the public about reducing by some $371 payments to doctors participating in federal Medicaid and Medicare programs proposed in the Senate bill upon which leading Democrats want to hold a vote this Sunday.
“With many Americans nervous about the debt and deficit, we cannot stress enough that this bill is the key to getting costs under control. As the President has stressed repeatedly, health reform is deficit reduction,” the alleged memo reads. And the reduction in federal payments to doctors involved in federal health care programs is the source of the preliminary $138 billion deficit reduction mentioned in the unofficial Congressional Budget Office report leaked this week. But that $138 billion in “savings” over 10 years is based on reduced payments to doctors.
But instead of actually reducing payments to doctors through a “Sustainable Growth Rate” mechanism included in the Senate bill, the internal memo allegedly shows Democrats have included the cost-saving measure only long enough to get the Senate health care bill approved and plan to repeal after the Senate bill is passed.
“The inclusion of a full [Sustainable Growth Rate] repeal would undermine reform’s budget neutrality. So again, do not allow yourself (or your boss) to get into a discussion of the details of [Congressional Budget Office] scores and textual narrative. Instead, focus only on the deficit reduction and number of Americans covered,” the suspect memo reads. But, later, the alleged memo reveals the White House and leading Congressional Democrats already are negotiating support among doctors to repeal the cost saving mechanism if they succeed in enacting changes to the $2.5 trillion-a-year U.S. health care system.
“As most [House Democrat] health staff knows, Leadership and the White House are working with the AMA to rally physicians support for a full [Sustainable Growth Rate] repeal later this spring. However, both health and communications staff should understand we do not want that policy discussion discussed at this time, lest [it] complicate that last critical push to pass health reform,” the alleged memo reads. “When media raise the issue of the [Sustainable Growth Rate], only say that Congressional leaders are working with the physician community on this issue.”
Several leading Democrats have claimed the alleged memorandum is a hoax. Several news sources that have used the information say it comes from a reputable source, but they cannot confirm its authenticity. House Democrats have scheduled debate on the Senate health care bill to begin at 1 p.m. Sunday with a vote planned afterward.
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