WASHINGTON — Bidding for support from Democrats as well as a single Republican, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee gaveled open a longawaited debate over health care Tuesday with fresh plans to reduce costs on working-class families and impose new obligations on the insurance industry.
"This is our opportunity to make history," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who announced he was adding $50 billion to draft legislation to help those who would be required to purchase insurance.
After months of delay caused by ultimately unsuccessful bipartisan talks, most committee Republicans praised Baucus before launching into attacks on the legislation he advanced late last week.
Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., called the measure a "stunning assault on our liberty" and cited a requirement for individuals and families to buy insurance. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican involved in the private negotiations, said the Senate Democratic leadership had imposed a mid-September deadline, "causing the end to our bipartisan work before it was done." He called it an absurd move, "utterly and completely appalling."
The Republican whom Baucus has courted most persistently, Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, said noncommittally that the legislation was "a solid starting point - but we are far from the finish line."
The panel is the fifth and last of the congressional committees to review President Barack Obama's call for sweeping legislation to reduce the ranks of the uninsured, expand protections for those already covered and generally reduce the ruinous growth in medical costs nationwide.
Baucus has said he hopes the panel can complete work by week's end, although more than 500 amendments were pending to the 10-year, nearly $900 billion bill.
It was unclear whether the committee would debate Baucus' decision not to permit the government to sell insurance in competition with private industry. Many liberal Democrats favor the idea, saying it is essential to hold down costs, but some moderates inside the party are opposed, as are all Republicans.
Baucus' bill calls instead for nonprofit co-ops to compete with private industry.
Approval of legislation by the Finance Committeewould clear the way for action within a week or so on the Senate floor. Across the Capitol, majority Democrats are working on the sametimeline as they push for a vote in the House.
So far, all four committees to vote on the issue have done so strictly along party lines.
But Baucus' oft-stated desire for bipartisanship pushed his bill toward the political center, to the consternation of fellow Democrats, and the changes he unveiled seemed designed to appeal to critics within his own party as well as to reach out to Snowe.
The most signif icant would sweeten the subsidies for individuals and families with incomes up to four times the government's poverty level - $43,320 for individuals and $88,200 for a family of four. In addition, Baucus called for lower outof-pocket medical costs for some lower-income families, and recommended making it easier for those who cannot afford the coverage offered by employers to qualify forfederal subsidies so they can purchase individual policies.
To hold down costs for older consumers, he also reduced the ability of insurance companies to charge more for coverage on the basis of age, from five times the base rate to four times.
Baucus also decided to reduce the penalty for families who defy a proposed mandate to purchase coverage, from $3,800 to $1,900.
Meanwhile, Congress' chief budget officer is contradicting Obama's oft-stated claim that senior citizens wouldn't see their Medicare benefits cut under a healthcare overhaul.
The head of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Elmendorf, told senators Tuesday that senior citizens in Medicare's managed care plans would see reduced benefits under a bill in the Finance Committee.
The bill would cut payments to the Medicare Advantage plans by more than $100 billion over 10 years.
Elmendorf said the changes would reduce the extra benefits that would be made available to beneficiaries.
Critics say the plans are overpaid, while supporters say they work well.
Obama says cuts to Medicare providers won't reduce senior citizens' benefits.
In other developments, Republican lawmakers rebuked the Obama administration Tuesday for tellinghealth insurance companies to stop warning elderly customers they'll lose benefits in health-care legislation, which some equated to a gag order.
At least one prominent insurer has misrepresented the pending bills to frighten older Americans, the administration says. But GOP leaders said the companies, whose income could be reduced by the legislation, are entitled to free speech and political debate.
"It is outrageous that the Obama administration is trying to keep seniors in the dark about the consequences of congressional Democrats' costly government-run health care bills," House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said.
The Senate's GOP leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said citizens and companies "have a fundamental right to talk about legislation they favor or oppose."
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid on Monday sent a notice to all companies that sell private Medicare coverage and standalone drug plans to senior citizens.
Saying at least one insurer was misleading those customers about the proposed legislation, it told the companies "to immediately discontinue all such mailings to beneficiaries and to remove any related materials directed to Medicare enrollees from your Web sites."
Peter Ashkenzaz, a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, defended the agency's notice to insurers.
"Because these are Medicare contractors," he said, "we want to make sure thatthe health plans' communications to beneficiaries are not violating marketing requirements or using protected information like Medicare mailing lists improperly." Information for this article was contributed by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Erica Werner and Charles Babington of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 09/23/2009