by Congressional Quarterly

s the House nears a high-stakes vote on health care legislation Sunday, Democratic leaders are still searching for votes. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D- Calif., said Friday that talks were continuing on a number of issues, including states’ Medicare reimbursement rates. “We will have a manager’s amendment,” she said Friday, “but it won’t address major issues.” Peter A. DeFazio , D-Ore., said he was threatening to withhold his vote because the final bill does not include a deal involving higher Medicare reimbursements for low-cost areas such as Portland in his home state. The plan was dropped because it might be struck by a Senate rule that blocks only “incidental” changes in revenues and outlays. House Democratic leaders picked up one more vote Friday morning but big trouble still looms for them with anti-abortion members. The gain, which according to a running CQ vote count, brings the total of Democrats in support of the final health bill to 214 of the 216 needed, was freshman Rep. John Boccieri of Ohio, who voted against the House bill in November. He said he changed his mind because the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the $940 billion overhaul would reduce the deficit by $138 billion in the first 10 years and another $1.2 trillion dollars in the second decade. But the gain of Boccieri could be offset by the potential loss of a senior Democrat, Nick J. Rahall II , D-W.Va., a longtime anti-abortion member. Rahall was one of a half-dozen or so Democrats who wants a separate vote on tougher abortion language before he will agree to support the health care overhaul and a separate bill revising the Senate-passed version. Another Democrat on the other side of the political spectrum, Stephen J. Lynch of Massachusetts, said that even a Thursday afternoon White House meeting with Obama wasn’t enough to get him to support the upcoming bill. Lynch, a liberal who has said he plans to vote against the final bill because the Senate version dropped too many of the pro-consumer provisions, said Obama “asked me to think about it.”

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   by Congressional Quarterly

House Democratic leaders touted their final health care overhaul package Thursday, as the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) posted its preliminary $940 billion cost estimate and President Obama again delayed a planned trip to Asia. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., said, “This is historical. He wants to be here for the history.” Click here to learn more! The House is expected to vote Sunday, March 21, on the final package, with floor action to follow in the Senate as early as next week. Obama put off his trip until June to help in the final push. Pelosi predicted the CBO analysis will ease the doubts of some wavering House Democrats and said, “We feel very strong about where we are, how we proceed.” But she and her leadership team are still trying to nail down the 216 votes among Democrats they will need to pass the bill. Top Democratic aides and Pelosi have been saying that until the CBO report came out and the final language of a bill amending the Senate-passed health legislation was ready, leaders couldn’t really whip members for their votes. But now, Pelosi said, she will go all-out. “We’re going to share these numbers more fully with our members,” she said. The CBO, in a preliminary score posted late Thursday morning, reported that the bill would cost $940 billion over 10 years, but thanks to reductions in Medicare spending and tax increases, it would reduce the deficit by a net of $138 billion during that period and by $1.2 trillion in its second decade. The bill would create state-based exchanges, or marketplaces, where individuals without employer-provided insurance could buy health coverage. Federal subsidies would be available to help cover the cost for many purchasers. The measure, according to Democrats, would pare the annual growth in Medicare expenditures by 1.4 percentage points per year, while closing the “doughnut hole” gap in prescription drug coverage and extending the program’s solvency by at least nine years. It also would extend health insurance coverage to about 32 million people who currently lack it, leading to coverage of an estimated 95 percent of Americans.

Kucinich's Switch on Health Care Is Boost for House Leaders

March 17, 2010

   by Congressional Quarterly

Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio, a liberal Democratic holdout against his party’s efforts to pass a health care overhaul, said Wednesday he will vote for the final legislation despite his disappointment with some provisions. His switch was good news for Democratic leaders, who are struggling to line up the necessary 216 votes to pass a final health care package. President Obama called it “a good sign” and said he had thanked the Ohio Democrat. Kucinich was among 39 Democrats who voted against the House version of the health care legislation last Nov. 7 because he thought it did not go far enough to curb private health insurers. He also dislikes the Senate-passed health bill for many reasons, including the fact that it lacks a public insurance option to compete with private companies. But Kucinich has had four meetings with President Obama in recent weeks — including on a flight to Cleveland on Monday — and said he views the upcoming House vote as a decisive moment. “This is a defining moment for whether we’ll have any opportunity to move off square one on health care,” Kucinich told a crowded news conference. Kucinich has disagreed with Obama on several policy issues in addition to health care, including the president’s Afghanistan war plans. But he said he thought Obama’s election in 2008 represented an opportunity to change the country for the better, and he didn’t want to see the president fail. “We have to be careful that the potential of President Obama’s presidency is not destroyed by this debate,” Kucinich said. He said he didn’t ask for or receive any special promises for his Cleveland district or Ohio in his meetings with Obama. He said he and the president agreed, after the current legislation is enacted, to work together on future health care efforts.

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