Democrats edge away from health care deadline

Across the Capitol, it seemed clear the drive to enact health care legislation was entering a new phase in the Senate, where attention has largely been focused for months on efforts by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., to forge a bipartisan agreement within the Finance Committee he chairs.

On Tuesday, the Senate Democratic leadership made it clear it viewed a proposed tax on certain health care benefits as unacceptable, at the same time it relayed word that it favors allowing the government to sell insurance to consumers.

Both those positions appeared to undercut much of the work Baucus has been doing. He has said for weeks that any legislation would call for a tax on certain health care benefits, and Republicans are strongly opposed to the idea of government intervention in the private insurance industry.

Baucus told reporters during the day he was "very sensitive to the various concerns that senators have" on taxing benefits, yet added, "by far a better approach is a bipartisan approach."

Baucus met separately with committee Democrats and a bipartisan group during the day.

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Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said Democrats seemed encouraged after going over a list of alternative tax proposals to help raise $320 billion toward the cost of the bill. Among them was a plan to tax workers whose insurance costs more than $25,000 a year, far more than the $15,000 or so that had been under consideration.

A few hours after Biden prodded Democrats at the White House, Jim Manley, a spokesman for Reid, said, "our goal still remains to get a bill out of the Senate by the August recess." But Republicans who emerged from private meetings with Reid said he expressed flexibility on a timetable.

At the same time, they conveyed strong opposition to allowing the government to compete with private industry in selling insurance, and also sought assurances that any legislation that goes to the White House will not include it.

Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., who did not attend the meeting in Reid's office, later told reporters a so-called public option "can only have one purposes ... to lead to a single-payer program" under which all policies are issued by the government.

"That is a non-starter," he said.

A second Senate committee is drafting legislation crafted more to the liking of Democrats, including an option for government-sold insurance and a requirement on businesses to pay an annual fee if they do not offer their workers insurance.

The announcement at the White House sparked its own share of controversy.

Public hospitals and children's hospitals, which serve many low-income patients, said such cuts would harm local communities. The National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems and the National Association of Children's Hospitals, which were not directly involved in the talks, said in a joint statement: "Such reductions could severely damage safety net providers if not carefully crafted."

"This is essential funding that supports trauma centers, burn care units and medical training," said Melissa Stafford Jones, president of the California Association of Public Hospitals.

The deal would allow hospitals to limit the damage to their budgets.

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