President Obama’s latest health care reform proposal has received a lukewarm response among House Democrats and a scathing review from Republicans three days ahead of a bipartisan summit on the issue.
The plan includes many of the elements of the Senate-passed plan the GOP opposes, but it adds a few more provisions that will stir even more Republican opposition, including language that could be used to give the government control over private insurance premiums.
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, put out a statement condemning the new plan, going so far as to say it jeopardizes the summit planned for Feb. 25 at Blair House
“The president has crippled the credibility of this week’s summit by proposing the same massive government takeover of health care based on a partisan bill the American people have already rejected,” Boehner said. “This new Democrats-only backroom deal doubles down on the same failed approach that will drive up premiums, destroy jobs, raise taxes, and slash Medicare benefits.”
Boehner goes on to say the summit, “has all the makings of a Democratic informercial.”
The latest version is aimed at appeasing House Democrats who did not like the bill’s tax on expensive insurance plans. The new plan delays the tax for union workers and raises the threshold of those who would have to pay it.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., however, did not appear thrilled with the plan. She said in a statement that it “contains positive elements from the House and Senate-passed bills.”
The proposal lacks the public health insurance option House liberals are demanding and it is not clear whether the House Democratic leaders will be able to come up with the 217 votes needed to pass it. The House will be short three members who voted “yes” on a previous health care reform bill that barely passed the House, including Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, who is resigning at the end of the month to run for governor.
Democrats in the Senate were more enthusiastic of the bill, which includes most of the provision they already passed in December.
“The president needs to say, ‘This is what I’m for,’ and it sounds like he has done that,” Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del. said. “We need to ask Republicans, ‘What are you for?’ And hope that they will present their ideas and we won’t be dismissive of them.”
