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While Confident Health Care Will Pass This Year, Democrats Still Search for a Plan

WASHINGTON — Democratic leaders in Congress voiced resolute optimism on Thursday that they would adopt major health care legislation this year, and they said that doing so was a crucial element of President Obama’s broader agenda to create jobs, revive the economy and reduce federal budget deficits.

But legislative leaders conceded that they did not have an immediate strategy for advancing a health care measure and described their time frame as open-ended.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, at a news conference in the Capitol, said House Democrats had begun exploring the possibility of breaking out pieces of the comprehensive bill they passed in November and moving forward on smaller measures.

“It means, we will move on many fronts, any front we can,” Ms. Pelosi said. “We’ll go through the gate. If the gate’s closed, we’ll go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we’ll pole-vault in. If that doesn’t work, we’ll parachute in. But we’re going to get health care reform passed for the American people, for their own personal health and economic security, and for the important role that it will play in reducing the deficit.”

Aides said that a first candidate for a stand-alone measure could be the proposal to eliminate the exemption from federal antitrust law that health insurance companies have long enjoyed. Such a proposal was incorporated in the larger House health care bill.

The Senate considered a similar proposal but did not include it in the bill it passed on Dec. 24.

In keeping with the tone of Mr. Obama’s State of the Union address, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, placed health care in the context of a broader agenda focused on jobs and the economy.

Mr. Reid met Thursday with his top advisers and Senate committee chairmen to discuss the health care legislation, but made no decisions about how to proceed, aides said.

“We’re going to do health care reform this year,” Mr. Reid said at a news conference. “The question is, At this stage, procedurally, how do we get where we need to go.”

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Itis interesting how there is still not much talk with Republicans.  There seems to be no effort to consider, let alone include, cross border competition in the HCR.

-- Edited by Sanders on Friday 29th of January 2010 11:49:23 AM