On Tuesday in Tampa, Florida U.S. Senator Bill Nelson told reporters that negotiations between conferees in the House and Senate on a health care reform bill should be done by the end of this month.
Of course, we've heard that one before.
Yesterday, there was an all-day long session held in Washington with major Democrats, including President Obama, on trying to close the gaps in the differences between the competing bills.
When asked by reporters at Union Station, where he had participated in a news conference regarding Florida's bid to win stimulus money to fund a high-speed rail line, Nelson said, "I believe we'll get the two versions, the House and Senate version worked out. It will mainly be the Senate version, because the threshold to pass something in the Senate is so much higher. With 60% of the votes required to pass it…I think will get that agreement soon, and done before the President's state of the union address."
(That address was originally scheduled for February 2nd, but- I kid you not – apparently enough fans of the ABC program"Lost" complained about that cutting into their favorite prime time entertainment show, that another date is being sought.)
A huge issue coming from the Democratic left is the so called excise tax on high-cost employer-sponsored health plans.
Union officials, who are dead set against that plan because they say it will too many middle-income people, are now saying that they'd have to pare back on providing dental and vision coverage if the excise tax were to kick in. From today's NY Times:
"Health care reform should be financed by tax surcharges on the wealthy and not by taxes on health insurance plans offered to middle-class workers, older persons and union members,” said Representative Lynn Woolsey, Democrat of California and co-chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
The chairmen of Verizon and AT&T weighed in with their concerns. In a letter to Congress joined by two union presidents, the executives, Ivan G. Seidenberg of Verizon and Randall L. Stephenson of AT&T, said the excise tax would “impact health plans covering tens of millions of workers” in various industries.
To avoid the tax, they predicted, many employers would cut back on dental and vision coverage.
Meanwhile, Nelson's amendment that would aid Floridians (though not exclusively) regarding Medicare Advantage gets some coverage today in the Tallahassee Democrat.
Cutting Medicare Advantage is one place where the Democrats believe they can save money, as they try to keep the costs of a final bill below $900 billion. But Senator Nelson wants the cuts to exempt roughly 800,000 Medicare Advantage customers in the sunshine state, where the program is less expensive than traditional Medicare. From the Democrat:
That includes places like South Florida, where Medicare spends a lot but where private insurers managing Medicare Advantage plans have curbed spending by reducing doctor visits and high-tech treatments.
John McCain calls Nelson's amendment the "Florida flim flam", and Karl Rove went on Fox News last month blasting Nelson. But Politifact weighed in on the matter, and said Florida would not be the only state to get such a break.
Meanwhile, up in Massachusetts, there is a Senate election scheduled next week to fill the seat held by 47 years by the late Ted Kennedy, and political writers are eating up the fact that it's a contested on (according to some polls). The vote is huge for Democrats to maintain their 60 vote supermajority and to get a health care bill passed. The Drudge Report has prominently featured the Republican candidate, Scott Brown, as "the man who could kill health care reform."
This article appears in Jan 13-19, 2010.