WRAPUP 3-US Senate panel rejects Republican healthcare delay

By John Whitesides and Donna Smith

WASHINGTON, Sept 23 (Reuters) - The Senate Finance Committee rejected a Republican effort on Wednesday to delay a final vote on a broad healthcare overhaul as it slowly waded through a crush of amendments on the plan's cost and scope.

Republicans demanded more information on the bill's budgetary impact and called for the Democratic-controlled panel to slow its deliberations on Chairman Max Baucus' healthcare reform plan, which he had hoped to bring to a vote this week.

Democrats said the requests were a tactic to stall President Barack Obama's top domestic priority, a broad overhaul of the $2.5 trillion healthcare industry that would rein in costs, regulate insurers and expand coverage to many of the 46 million uninsured people living in the United States.

In the first of a day-long series of largely party-line votes, the panel rejected a Republican proposal to delay a final committee vote until the bill's language could be finalized and posted on the Internet, and budget experts could estimate its full cost.

Baucus said Senator Jim Bunning's proposal would create at least a two-week delay before the Congressional Budget Office could conclude its final analysis of the bill.

'If it takes two more weeks, it takes two more weeks,' said Republican Olympia Snowe, the only panel Republican considered a potential supporter of the final bill. 'We're talking about trillions of dollars in the final analysis. What is the rush?'

Instead, the panel approved Baucus's pledge to post a preliminary CBO cost estimate on the committee website before a final vote -- a step that makes it highly likely a final vote will spill over to next week.

The panel began working through hundreds of amendments to the Baucus plan, the last of five bills pending in Congress on a healthcare overhaul that has been slowed by intense political skirmishing and criticism from all sides.

'There is a substantial slow walk taking place in this committee,' Democrat John Rockefeller complained about the Republican amendments as the panel made little headway.



SLOW DOWN

Republicans repeatedly have called for slower consideration of the healthcare measure, which Democratic supporters have tried to fast-track to create momentum and prevent opposition from building as it did during an August congressional recess.

Lawmakers rejected a Republican effort to keep the agency that administers the government-run insurance program for the elderly from barring private insurers from expressing views on the reform legislation.

The Republican bid came after Humana Inc. sent a letter to its elderly participants warning the reform bill could hurt 'millions of seniors and disabled individuals (who) could lose many of the important benefits and services that make make Medicare Advantage health plans so valuable.'

Health insurers accused the U.S. Medicare agency of political interference for investigating the Humana letter and for warning other insurers about sending potentially misleading mailings to customers.

Republicans called it a free-speech issue, but Democrats said it had little to do with constitutional rights and more to do with corporate responsibilities.

Baucus also ruled out of order several Republican amendments to revise sections of the bill on Medicare. The panel approved a Republican effort to ensure any Medicare savings go to shore up the system.

The panel still faces a possible vote on Democratic Senator Bill Nelson's amendment to boost the rebates drugmakers pay the government for some low-income patients, which would put the industry's deal with the White House and Baucus at risk.

Drugmakers agreed earlier this year to pay $80 billion toward the healthcare overhaul, but the amendment would more than double that amount in order to help reduce a gap in prescription drug coverage for seniors on Medicare.

Lawmakers began debate on the amendment during a late-night session on Tuesday, but had not returned to it by late on Wednesday.

The S&P Managed Health Care index of large health insurers' stock prices fell for a second straight day as several analysts said the amendments to the Baucus bill were generally unfavorable to the industry.



'PUBLIC OPTION'

Under the Baucus plan, all U.S. citizens and legal residents would be required to obtain health insurance, with subsidies offered on a sliding scale to help people buy it. The plan would create state-based exchanges where individuals and small businesses could shop for insurance.

Baucus had adjusted his bill on Tuesday to address concerns from fellow Democrats about its affordability for consumers. He expanded subsidies to individuals, reduced penalties for not having insurance and adjusted a tax on high-cost insurance plans to ensure it does not hurt middle-class workers.

It does not include a new government-run insurance program -- widely called the 'public option' -- that would compete with private insurers, which is included in the other four bills in Congress and is backed by Obama and liberal Democrats.

Instead the Baucus plan calls for the creation of nonprofit cooperatives as a way to ensure competition among insurers. Membership in the cooperatives would be offered through state insurance exchanges where small businesses and individuals could shop for health coverage.

Many liberal Democrats in both chambers have balked at the cooperatives proposal. Amendments before the committee would strike that provision and instead put in a public option.

'I believe the best way to keep the insurance companies honest, as President Obama has said, is a robust public option in the legislation,' House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi told a meeting of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation at the Capitol.

Pelosi has vowed a public option, strongly opposed by the insurance industry, will be included in a bill passed by the Democratic-controlled House. The insurance industry and some drug makers have lobbied against the healthcare overhaul.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said Congress should stand up to them. 'We have got to show the American people that we can overcome the power of the insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry. That's what it's all about,' he said.

(Editing by David Alexander and Will Dunham) Keywords: USA HEALTHCARE/ ([e-mail]; [phone]; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.