CNSNews.com - Text of Most Controversial Element in Health-Care Bill is Missing from Publicly Released Draft

CNSNews.com - Text of Most Controversial Element in Health-Care Bill is Missing from Publicly Released Draft

(CNSNews.com) - The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions (HELP) unveiled a draft of its health care reform bill for the first time Tuesday, but the bill omitted particulars about the biggest controversy in the debate – the public health insurance option.



The document details 615 pages of health care reform that would affect millions of Americans, but the section concerning the nationwide dispute over a “public option” only says, “Policy under discussion.”

The public option involves the creation of a government-run health insurance provider.

Three other sections in the bill – sections relating to non-discrimination, the shared responsibility of employers to provide health insurance and biologics price competition and innovation – also use the same explanation to replace details that will eventually be added to the bill.

Although these important pieces of the legislation still appear to be no more than bare bones, members of the committee, which is headed by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), began deliberating on the bill Wednesday.

Some lawmakers, however, have expressed concerns about the committee getting ahead of itself by “marking up” the bill before it has completely been written.

“Why are we rushing to act on this bill? Asking the Committee to consider a bill before they’ve even finished writing it is putting the cart before the horse,” said Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), ranking Republican on the HELP Committee.

“We need to take the time to get this right, not barrel through the normal process in order to meet arbitrary deadlines,” Enzi added.

Enzi’s mention of “arbitrary deadlines” is a reference to President Obama’s requests in recent days for the House of Representatives to “pass a comprehensive health care reform bill by July 31” and for Congress as a whole to “complete health care reform by October.”

During a Monday meeting with reporters, the day before the HELP Committee bill was released, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) criticized Obama’s hurried approach, because it does not give the public enough time to digest all of the bill’s implications. Kyl sits on the Senate Finance Committee, which is also drafting a bill related to health care reform.

“I understand that significant parts of the HELP Committee bill are not written, we don’t have a Finance Committee bill written, and yet the president says we have to ram this through really quickly or else momentum for it will slow to the point where it might not pass,” Kyl said.

“I think he’s right, but the American people have a right to know what’s in here.”

Kyl offered several reasons why proposed health care reform may fail if the Senate does not pass it quickly.

“There’s a reason why the president has said ‘if we don’t get this done soon, it’s not going to happen,’” Kyl said. “Why? Why does he say that?

“Because he knows that momentum will inevitably slow for something that’s extraordinarily costly, will deny people the coverage that they already have, will ration their health care, and could provide some kind of government insurance company that’s going to drive out the private insurance companies that provide all these options,” he said.

“It will impose new taxes, it will tell employers that they either have to pay a certain amount of money to cover people or they’re going to be fined,” Kyl added.

Obama’s clock may be ticking, but some lawmakers say more time is needed to ensure effective reform of America’s health care system.

“Why has the president set a July 31 deadline?” Kyl spokesman Ryan Patmintra said. “Nobody, including the president, can answer that question. Why is July 31 the magic date? I think the White House should have to answer that question.”

Ironically, the fact that the push is on to rush the health care bill through Congress – while the final text hasn’t even been determined – seems to be a repeat of what happened in February with President Obama’s economic stimulus package, according to Tom McClusky, a senior vice president at the conservative Family Research Council Action.

“If you look at the rhetoric coming from the White House and from members of Congress, they’re using the same rhetoric that they had with the stimulus bill – that this ‘needs to be done,’ it ‘needs to be done quickly,’ and when it comes to the cost it’s like 'Yeah, but you've got to think about the cost of what will happen if we don’t pass this,'” McClusky said.

The text of that bill, which was 1,071 pages, was not made available in final form for public inspection until the night before it faced a final vote in Congress.

“They (congressional Democrats) don’t deal with facts and figures when they’re talking about it. They’re just dealing in psychic projections, basically, in what they think this legislation will do,” he added.

On health care reform, meanwhile, neither the HELP Committee nor the Senate Finance Committee project timelines of when their bills will be completed, giving Congress little time in order to meet the presidential deadlines.