Democrats strike health care deal

story by Politico
photo of Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) by AP

written by Carrie Brown & Chris Frates

Senate Democrats announced a deal Saturday morning on a wide-ranging overhaul of the nation’s health care system, setting a course for a vote by Christmas and delivering President Barack Obama a badly needed victory on his top legislative priority.

A 13-hour negotiating session that stretched into the night Friday finally clinched the support of the last Democratic holdout, moderate Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.). The handshake deal cleared the way for a series of votes that could stretch until 7 p.m. Christmas Eve.

“Change is never easy,” Nelson told reporters. “I truly believe this legislation will stand the test of time. The lives of millions Americans will be improved.”

Nelson agreed to support the bill after Democrats strengthened restrictions on federal funding of abortion, by allowing states to opt out from allowing plans to cover abortion in a new insurance marketplace. Also, enrollees in plans covering abortion must pay separate checks – one for abortion, one for the rest of services.

Some anti-abortion groups consider such attempts to “segregate” the payments to be something of a shell game. And in fact, the National Right to Life Committee quickly came out against the Nelson compromise, saying it didn’t go as far as abortion restrictions in the House bill.

At the same time, two leading groups supporting the right to abortion, Planned Parenthood and the National Organization for Women, also said they oppose the abortion agreement – setting up a difficult negotiation over abortion language when the House and Senate try to merge their bills.

Nelson, however, made clear that if the compromise on restricting federal funding of abortion and Medicaid funding don’t survive in the final House-Senate compromise, he will not support the final bill.

Nelson also won his own version of Sen. Mary Landrieu's much-derided "Louisiana Purchase." In Nelson's case, the federal government will permanently pick up all the cost of new Medicaid enrollees in Nebraska, rather than splitting the tab with the state, as is usually done. Nelson’s Nebraska is the only state singled out for such treatment – a $45 million cost to federal taxpayers that shows the power of a single senator in this debate.