After weeks of gridlock, the Democratic effort to move sweeping health care reform through Congress took a step forward after several pep talks from the Obama administration.
With the hopes for a bipartisan plan fading, a Senate committee approved 13-10 along party lines a massive bill that would create a government-run health insurance option and force employers to provide coverage or pay a tax.
The bill, which passed without one Republican vote, would cost more than $1 trillion to implement over the next decade and would provide coverage to millions of uninsured people. It would also shift several million people from private health care to the government-run health care wing, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.
“While we have not crafted the perfect legislation, we have now put on the table legislation that will serve as the basis for addressing the crippling issue that is now facing our country,” said Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., who took over chairing the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., who is battling brain cancer.
Republicans said they could not vote for the bill because of its staggering cost and because they believed the creation of a government-run option threatened the private coverage many Americans now enjoy and would lead to European-style medical care.
The top Republican on the committee, Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., pointed out that only a small fraction of substantial GOP amendments to the bill were accepted by Democrats, despite his “high hopes” that a bipartisan bill would be crafted.
“If America is going to believe in what we do, this cannot be a bill that is put together by just one side,” Enzi said before voting against the bill. “If there is just one side that has the votes and writes the bill and wins, America won’t win.”
Among the Republican amendments accepted by the committee was one proposed by Sen. Tom Coburn, of Oklahoma, that would require members of Congress to enroll in the government-run health care plan.
The Senate is working on a bipartisan bill, but it has yet to be drafted and the Obama administration has signaled it will not wait for a GOP-backed bill.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., has been struggling for weeks to put together a bill with Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. Now that Dodd has finished his legislation, the pressure has intensified for Baucus to come up with something.
It is unlikely the Dodd bill will be the final product that Congress sends to the desk of President Barack Obama.
Instead, elements of the bill will be combined with legislation the House is planning to draft this week.
The House bill, unveiled Tuesday, would cost $1.04 trillion and would also create a government-run system. Unlike the Senate bill, the House bill includes a funding mechanism calling for a 5.4 percent surtax on those who earn more than $1,000,000 and a 1 percent tax for those earning more than $350,000.
House Democrats are struggling to get their own caucus behind the bill, though. Centrist “Blue Dog” Democrats have pledged to make changes to the legislation to address cost and other issues.
