The Senate on Wednesday got off to a shaky start on negotiating a massive health care reform bill as Republicans ripped holes in a yet-to-be completed Democratic plan that so far comes with a staggering $1 trillion price tag that is expected to get much more expensive.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., set the mood among Republicans at the start of the talks, interrupting an opening statement by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and calling the bill “a joke” because it lacked many of the details of its major components, such as the plan for a government-run insurance option that would compete with private insurers and a requirement that employers provide health insurance to employees or pay a tax.
“At what point in this markup are we going to have the cost estimates?” McCain asked Dodd.
The bill, written by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., got a preliminary look by the Congressional Budget Office earlier this week, which estimated that the bill would cost at least $1 trillion but would reduce the rolls of the estimated 46 million uninsured Americans by only 16 million. McCain asked Dodd to postpone action on the bill until a complete “score” of the bill could be provided by the budget office.
Dodd, who is heading negotiations in place of cancer-stricken Kennedy, said he wanted to move the bill out of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee by next week and would fill in the missing parts as the negotiations proceed.
“I appreciate the frustrations being expressed,” Dodd told Republicans. “My goal is to do a good job at this. We are getting one shot at doing this, and I believe we can do this. We are going to stick with this, and the only way you can do it is to not walk away.”
Kennedy’s bill is one of two major proposals under construction in the Senate. Another plan is supposed to be released today or Friday by the Senate Finance Committee that will likely be less generous than the Kennedy bill.
Dodd said he was hoping for a unanimous vote on the Kennedy bill in the health committee, but that is very unlikely, as GOP lawmakers blasted many of its components, including a provision that would provide government health care subsidies for families earning incomes at 500 percent of the poverty level.
“That is a staggering concept, that if you make $110,000 in this country, you have a right to have the rest of the taxpayers in this country supply your health insurance,” said Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. “It is not appropriate in my opinion and is excessive to say the least.”
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., implored Republicans not to walk away from negotiations.
“Let’s find this common ground, let’s find this sensible center,” she said. “If you don’t like this, don’t try to jettison it, let’s come up with it.”
