A congressional analyst believes Democrats will even have a difficult time passing a watered-down version of their healthcare bill.
Confronted with the reality that they lack the votes necessary to pass their desired version of healthcare reform, Democrats are now deciding how they can scale back the legislation so it can win congressional approval.
Dan Holler, deputy director for Senate relations at The Heritage Foundation, gives an idea of what a smaller Democratic healthcare bill might entail.
"What they're talking about right now are some insurance market reforms, some things to help small businesses, closing the gap in Medicare prescription drug coverage...and bumping up how long children -- I guess you can call them children -- but keeping dependents up to 26-years-old on their parents' coverage," he explains.
He also notes that Democrats are forced to scrap major tenets of their original bill.
"The individual mandate, the employer mandate, the public option, the OPM-run plan, the national or state exchanges -- a lot of the big picture stuff is being thrown aside because they just can't move it through [because] they found it to be too unpopular," Holler reports. "But, all of that said, what they're proposing is still going to be very hard to do."
The analyst says if Congress jettisons the individual mandate, there will be no insurance industry support for the reforms that were tied to that mandate. That scenario, he predicts, will render the bill "unworkable."
Limited overhaul
Appearing on CBS's The Early Show today, former Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean says he still thinks Democrats can get a scaled-back health care bill through Congress. But Dean also said he doubts Republicans will work with Democrats on a compromise measure -- even one far more modest and less costly than versions passed by the House and Senate.
The former Vermont governor said he believes Republicans concluded "they can benefit" politically from resisting President Barack Obama's ambitious health overhaul. But he also said the American people want changes in the system, saying "they didn't want something that was written by the insurance industry."
Contact: Jim Brown
Source: OneNewsNow
Publish Date: January 22, 2010
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