Newsmax.com - Sen. McCain: $1 Trillion for Kennedy Health Bill? From Where?

Newsmax.com - Sen. McCain: $1 Trillion for Kennedy Health Bill? From Where?

WASHINGTON — The Senate took its first stab Wednesday at overhauling the nation's healthcare system in the Obama era, with Republicans demanding specific cost totals amid eye-popping estimates of $1 trillion-plus and Democrats determined to press ahead.



"This is about as historic as it gets for all of us," said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who is overseeing the proceedings in place of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who is battling brain cancer.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee began work on a bill encompassing President Barack Obama's legislative priority. The effort marked the first time since President Bill Clinton's administration that Congress has tackled such a broad overhaul.

High costs, uneven healthcare, and the fact that nearly 50 million Americans are uninsured have created the strongest political momentum for remaking the system in decades.

The Senate measure would cost about $1 trillion over 10 years but leave 37 million people uninsured, according to an analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the GOP presidential nominee last year, questioned how the committee could move ahead on legislation without hard figures on cost.

"How can we possibly, reasonably address this bill . . . without accounting how to pay for it?" McCain asked at the start of the committee's session. It is "a joke if we run through this stack of papers," he said.

Dodd answered that the budget office had provided numbers on some elements, and the committee would produce legislation that will be paid for.

Big holes remain on the most contentious issues in the bill: a new public insurance plan to compete with the private market, and whether employers must provide healthcare for their workers.

The committee is scheduled to meet daily through next week.

Disagreements over costs and other issues snagged another key committee, the Senate Finance Committee, which has a more moderate makeup than Kennedy's panel and is considered Congress' best hope for producing a bipartisan bill.

The Finance Committee was supposed to produce a draft Wednesday. But the chairman, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said that wouldn't happen and the bill will come out "when it's ready," this week or next. His committee was supposed to start voting next week.

Majority Democrats in the House could make their bill public this week, with committee votes after Congress returns from its July 4 recess.

A $1.6 trillion cost estimate for the Finance Committee bill became public Tuesday. Senators quickly huddled on ways to bring down costs, with Baucus insisting that the final price tag on his committee's bill would be around $1 trillion.

At Kennedy's committee, officials said that, after penciling in subsidies for families with incomes as high as $110,000, or 500 percent of the federal poverty level, they would limit the help to families up to $88,000 in income, or 400 percent of the poverty level.

The emerging Finance Committee bill also cuts off subsidies to help people buy insurance at 400 percent of the poverty level, but Baucus told reporters a reduction was "a live option." There were indications the final cutoff would be closer to 300 percent of poverty — $66,000 for a four-person family.

Major cuts in Medicare and Medicaid would pay for some of the new costs but senators disagreed among themselves over whether to tax employer-provided health benefits - something Obama campaigned against. Also elusive was a compromise with Republicans on a new public insurance plan, which the GOP opposes.

The emerging bills envision a new insurance market "exchange" where people could go to shop for insurance coverage, helped by federal subsidies. Individuals almost certainly will be required to obtain coverage.

Business groups were working overtime to soften any requirement for employers to provide coverage for their employees or face fines. Most large employers already offer healthcare, but senators are looking at requiring certain levels of care, so businesses fear a scenario in which the government would force them to offer more or different coverage than they already do.

"We're concerned that the plan requirements will be so robust that our members' plans won't meet those requirements," said Jeri Kubicki, the National Association of Manufacturers' human resources policy vice president.

Also Wednesday, three former Senate leaders — Democrat Tom Daschle and Republicans Bob Dole and Howard Baker — were releasing a $1.2 trillion proposal that would cover everyone and be fully paid for with a combination of spending cuts and tax increases.