"Democrats Make 'Signficant Progress' in Health Talks"

[Clio the Leo]

Democrats Make 'Signficant Progress' in Health Talks

By JANET ADAMY, NAFTALI BENDAVID And LAURA MECKLER

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama and top congressional Democrats reported "significant progress" toward an agreement on a final health bill Wednesday after negotiations at the White House that stretched for more than eight hours.

The intense day of talks signaled the White House's drive to quickly pass a bill so it could shift its focus to other issues, including job growth.

In a joint statement, the president, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said they were "encouraged and energized" after making progress in bridging the remaining differences between the two health-care bills passed late last year by the House and Senate.

The president participated in most of the negotiations, according to the statement, and his planned appearance at a Maryland training center to tout clean-energy jobs was canceled as the talks ran past their scheduled time.

The president, who left the bill's details to Congress last year, made his preferences clear on various provisions in Wednesday's meeting, one participant said. The statement said talks would continue Thursday.

Lawmakers tried to resolve conflicts over how to pay for the bill, how to structure a new requirement that employers offer insurance and how to expand the insurance subsidies in the bill to make them more generous for lower earners, according to Democratic aides. The talks moved closer to the House position calling for a national health-insurance exchange, rather than state-run exchanges. No final decisions were reached, the aides said.

<snip>

Union leaders returned to the White House on Wednesday, following a visit earlier this week, for negotiations over a proposed tax on generous health-insurance plans. Union officials have asked the president to support a proposal that would exempt workers with existing collective-bargaining agreements from a 40% tax on high-value plans, according to a labor official.

Rep. Robert Andrews (D., N.J.), who wasn't at the meeting but has been involved in the health negotiations, said the discussions during the day covered how to scale back the tax on high-value plans, but wouldn't say if that specifically meant exempting collective-bargaining agreements. He described the proposal under consideration as "a way to lessen the impact of the so-called excise tax," and added, "I think we could build a consensus around that idea, a majority around that idea."

(more)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704362004575000993084819902.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_PoliticsNCampaign_5

[msongs]

1. gotta get a deal so obama can look good on tv for SOTU speech nt

[Pirate Smile]

5. Cynicism is easy and sad.

[CakeGrrl]

15. Makes you wonder if some of these people WANT the HCR bill to be shit just so

they can feel justified in their disappointment and anger at the President.

:crazy:

[dflprincess]

17. There is no HCR bill

it's an insurance bill designed to protect the status quo. Without it, the insurance companies would soon collapse of their own weight.

[freddie mertz]

2. Notice that all the action is in the HOUSE, not the Senate.

It is clear that the president expects more concessions from the House side, even though the bill there by only two votes.'

I hope the progressives stick to their guns on the key issues.

[NJmaverick]

3. It makes sense that President Obama would be heavily involved now

as one of his biggest strengths is to bridge gaps and bring people together.

[freddie mertz]

4. He was involved all along, I am pretty sure.

The Senate bill must have been much closer to what he wanted, based on what we see this week.

[NJmaverick]

6. The President laid out a broad outline of what he wanted

then he let the House and Senate get to work on the best versions each could produce. Now comes the conference where the rubber meets the road.

[freddie mertz]

8. He pushed a bi-partisan, concession-oriented agenda through Baucus.

We know this was a failure now, and I maintain that it almost certainly helped to embolden the later obstructions of Lieberman and Nelson.

[Clio the Leo]

7. He said before he was elected....

"One of my biggest strengths is to get people into a room and get them to come to an agreement." .... and now he's literally doing it .... and then running down the hall to see what the Union guys in the OTHER room think about it. :)

[NJmaverick]

9. In many ways this is the mark of true leadership

it's not about parading in front of cameras and declaring "I am the decider" it's about working with people and resolving conflict and getting things done.

[Clio the Leo]

11. Right and at the risk of being crude and sexist....

.... sometimes being a leader has little to do with demonstrating the size of your gonads and more to do with showing, well, what big EARS you have.... ;)



(and you KNOW what they say about a man with big ears? ....... REALLY REALLY big BRAIN AGENDA!)

[freddie mertz]

10. Why wait till now? Why not put in on CSPAN?

I know it is a cheap shot, but hey....

[Clio the Leo]

12. 'cause you'd be watching Scooby Doo reruns Freddie!

.... one cheap shot deserves another right?

just messin with ya. :pals:

[NJmaverick]

13. Freddie do you honestly think putting the negotiations on C-Span

wouldn't turn them into a silly public display rather than a means of getting a job completed?

[freddie mertz]

14. No I do not. I think it was a silly, gimmicky campaign promise.

I never expected it, thought it was dumb to promise it, and would in fact prefer watching Scooby-Doo reruns (or, if I could have my choice, reruns of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a much better show...)

[NJmaverick]

16. So why bring it up?

[Bodhi BloodWave]

18. so he could complain about it? n/t

[freddie mertz]

22. Because it shows how sloppy and dishonest Obama was with his "promises."

He knew it SOUNDED good, so he went with it, without bothering to worry about or even remember it later.

It is bad politics, immature, sloppy, and dangerous, leaving him open to attack as a dissembler.

[dflprincess]

19. Unless you supported single payer - or any other meaningful reform

then you're not allowed in the room.

It appears that protecting the insurance companies was his goal all along, he's too smart not to know this scam does nothing to improve access to care. I hope whatever pharma and insurance companies promised him was worth selling us out for.

[euphoria12leo]

20. How many Senators do you think would vote for single payer?

I would like to know. :shrug:

[dflprincess]

21. It's hard to say

when it was never part of the discussion - perhaps some could have been persuaded or at least convinced that a real public option was necessary (if nothing else just to "keep the insurance companies honest" - as someone used to say). Maybe they would have given real consideration to expanding Medicare to some groups. We'll never know because it was never tried.

Starting negotiations from what should have been the compromise position made it pretty clear that neither Obama nor a good many members of Congress were ever serious about passing reform that would have improved access to health care - especially when those respresenting the status quo (pharma and the insurers) were given prominent seats at the table while anyone who actually wanted change was ignored.