President Barack Obama is struggling to show progress in a race against the clock to revamp the U.S. health care system this year.
Problems in Congress overshadowed a White House event Wednesday designed to boost Obama’s health overhaul, his top domestic priority.
Leaders from hospital industry trade groups appeared with Vice President Joe Biden to announce that hospitals are ready to give up about $155 billion over 10 years in government payments. The money could then be used to help pay for covering millions of Americans who do not have health insurance.
“Reform is coming,” Biden said. “It is on track. …We have never been as close as we are today.” And in a firm message to lawmakers, he added. “We must and will enact reform by the end of August.”
But Congress, not the health care industry, is the source of Obama’s troubles.
Lawmakers returned Tuesday from their July 4 U.S. Independence Day holiday break with lots of questions about the complex legislation and deep misgivings about key elements under discussion.
Democratic senators in particular are having second thoughts about a proposed new tax on health insurance benefits provided by some employers. Without the tax — Republicans favor it as a brake on cost increases— the prospects for a bipartisan deal in the Senate appear to be in jeopardy.
The stakes are extremely high for Obama. The fate of legislation to overhaul the U.S. health care system, with a major new role in it for the government, could become the defining issue of the Democratic president’s first term.
Obama’s ambitious timetable for passing a bill this year keeps slipping. Timing is critical because lawmakers might be reluctant to vote on such a charged issue as health care next year, when all House members and one-third of senators face elections.
“We’re not there yet,” said Democratic Sen. Max Baucus who, as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has spent countless hours seeking a compromise with Republican colleagues. “I’m trying the best I can to get there soon.”
Another senator deeply involved in the bipartisan negotiations said the proposed new tax on the costliest employer-paid insurance benefits is quickly losing favor with Democrats.
“It’s clearly a very difficult issue,” said Sen. Kent Conrad, a Democrat, citing recent polls. “You go to the public to ask them what they think and they don’t like it.”
A compilation of surveys reviewed by senators showed at least 59 percent of the public opposed to taxing health care benefits to “pay for reform.”
As a result, Conrad said, “we’re looking at other options” to help finance a bill whose price tag is expected to reach $1 trillion or slightly more. Those other options may be hard to sell to Republicans whose support Baucus has been cultivating.
The deal with the hospitals — the one bright spot right now for Obama — may also be on shaky ground. Officials said it’s pegged to the Senate Finance Committee legislation that Baucus is negotiating, and whose prospects are uncertain.
Of the $155 billion in projected savings, about $40 billion to $50 billion would come from reducing federal payments hospitals receive for providing care to uninsured and low-income patients, according to lobbyists.
About $100 billion more would come from reductions in planned Medicare payments to hospitals. Medicare is the federal health insurance program for the elderly.
Hospitals would also get something out of the deal. They won an agreement that any new public health insurance plan would reimburse hospitals at levels above the current federal insurance programs.
The issue of a government insurance plan to compete against private companies continued to inflame sentiments on both sides of the political aisle. Republicans remain solidly opposed. Democrats, citing polls that show the public is open to the idea, are talking about a showdown with Republicans on the issue.
