Baucus Schmaucus

By GottaLaff

Bill, schmill:

The bill includes significant concessions to Republicans on key issues, which has drawn criticism from Democrats on the committee, setting the stage for a potentially contentious markup when the process kicks off next week.

Baucus will convene a closed-door meeting with Finance Committee members from both parties to go over the bill on Thursday morning. Senators have until 5 p.m. on Friday to submit amendments, all of which must include offsets if they require new spending. The mark-up will begin Tuesday morning.

Baucus’s measure would cost $856 billion over 10 years — far less than the $1 trillon-plus bills approved by four other congressional committees and less even than Baucus’s previous estimates. The price tag also falls below the $900 billion limit set by President Barack Obama.

The new costs would be fully offset by reductions in Medicare spending and by generating new revenue from an excise tax on health insurance companies that sell plans that cost more than $21,000 for families and more than $8,000 for individuals. Insurers, pharmaceutical companies, medical-device makers, clinical laboratories and hospitals would also pay fees.

The basic structure of the bill closely resembles the measures already approved by four other congressional committees and the framework laid out by Obama in an address to a joint session of Congress this month.

Under the bill, most people would be required to obtain some form of insurance or face a penalty. The legislation would establish state-based health insurance exchanges through which individuals and small-business employees could purchase coverage. Tax credits would be available for low- and middle-income people up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level ($66,150 for a family of four) and to small-business owners to purchase insurance. Medicaid would be expanded to cover people up to 133 percent of poverty level, or $30,000 a year for a family of four.

According to Baucus, those who get their insurance coverage from their employers would continue to do so. Most employers that do not provide insurance would be required to contribute to the cost of their workers getting coverage elsewhere.

Insurance-market reforms make up a sizable part of the bill and include prohibitions against companies excluding people with pre-existing conditions or based on health status.

The measure also would beef up prevention and wellness services for people enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid. Underpinning the legislation is a set of healthcare delivery-system reforms designed to improve efficiency and quality in the system, such as linking pay rates under federal programs to demonstrate improvements in care.

But the differences between Baucus’s bill and those approved by three House committees and one other Senate committee are considerable and underscore the divisions among liberal and centrist Democrats over how to fulfill Obama’s campaign promise to overhaul the healthcare system during his first term.

Chief among liberal objections to Baucus’s approach is that his bill does not include a government-run public option insurance program that would compete against private companies. In its place is a proposal espoused by Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) to create member-owned, not-for-profit healthcare cooperatives as an alternative to traditional insurance.

Other Democrats have also grown increasingly vocal about their concerns that the tax credits Baucus would provide are too meager and do not apply to enough people. For those between 300 percent and 400 percent of poverty, the assistance is substantially less generous than under the other Democratic bills. [...]

Though Grassley and Snowe have indicated they have not given up hope of achieving a compromise before or during next week’s mark-up, any GOP senator who decides to support the Finance Committee’s bill would be defying his or her party.

Bipartisan schmipartisan.

UPDATE, via my pal VNDNBRG:

More here.