Senate Finance Committee

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House, Senate Dems Split on 'Cadillac Tax'

As finance committee votes, caucus divided on how to fund reform

(Newser) - The Senate Finance Committee is poised to send its bill to the full legislature today, but its provision taxing "Cadillac" insurance plans is raising hackles in the House. Max Baucus and other senators say taxing high-cost plans will raise $200 billion, a quarter of the legislation's price tag, and...

Industry Report Distorts Health Reform Cost
Industry Report Distorts Health Reform Cost
analysis

Industry Report Distorts Health Reform Cost

Insurance firms' numbers blindside Baucus bill's backers

(Newser) - A new report that says the Senate Finance Committee’s reform bill would raise private insurance premiums is riddled with troubling exceptions, writes Jonathan Cohn. The report, commissioned by America's Health Insurance Plans, estimates the costs of premiums over time if the bill is implemented, but it doesn’t take...

Insurance Group Bashes Baucus Bill With Report

White House betrayed by 'hatchet job' predicting cost hikes

(Newser) - The White House is steamed this morning over a report, sponsored by the insurance industry, saying the Senate Finance Committee’s health care bill would cause premiums and costs to rise. The report was commissioned by America’s Health Insurance Plans, an industry group that has until now supported reform...

CBO: Baucus Bill Would Cut Deficit by $81B

Projection is good news for Democrats

(Newser) - Good news for Democrats and Max Baucus: The Congressional Budget Office says the Senate finance panel's health care bill won't add to the deficit. In fact, the CBO says the bill would reduce it by $81 billion over 10 years. That should make it easier for Baucus to push his...

Senate Bill Likely to Come Down to Reid, Dodd, Baucus
Senate Bill Likely to Come Down to Reid, Dodd, Baucus
HEALTH NEGOTIATIONS

Senate Bill Likely to Come Down to Reid, Dodd, Baucus

Baucus, Dodd the only senators with secure seats at negotiating table

(Newser) - Every senator worth their salt is salivating for a seat at the table when Harry Reid merges the Senate’s two competing health care bills—but the vast majority will instead have their noses pressed to the glass. Reid hopes to speed things up by keeping the group small, Politico...

Forget Baucus: Reid Takes Reins on Health Care

Tough issues will be on the table as the majority leader tries to hammer out a bill

(Newser) - In the Senate Finance Committee, it's all over but the voting, and Democratic hopes for health care reform now rest with Harry Reid, who has to pull something cogent (and passable) out of a welter of conflicting proposals from several committees. That puts him the "in the eye of...

Health Bill Author Baucus Reaps $1.5M From Industry

Finance chairman raked in donations while crafting measure

(Newser) - It's no secret that Capitol Hill is awash in money from the health-care industry but the amounts involved are far larger than many realize, according to a new report from a watchdog group. The Sunlight Foundation found that many senators—especially Montana Democrat Max Baucus, chair of the Senate Finance...

GOP Indulges in Health Amendment Free-for-All

(Newser) - Reasoned debate is all well and good, but the more than 300 amendments offered to the health care reform bill by finance committee Republicans are “dangerously close to a parody,” Dana Milbank writes. Or maybe they’re already there. Take Orrin Hatch’s request for “transition relief...

Stewart: So Much for 60 Votes
 Stewart: So Much for 60 Votes 

Stewart: So Much for 60 Votes

Daily Show rips Democrats for public option failure.

(Newser) - When Democrats took over Congress in 2006, they did… well, basically nothing. But all that was supposed to change when they got their unstoppable 60-vote "super majority," right? Jon Stewart sure thought so. “They’d be like a bear with chainsaws instead of paws!” he cried....

Only the President Can Save the Public Option

Reid, Obama will decide what gets voted on in the Senate

(Newser) - Pretty soon, Barack Obama is going to have to step in and referee the fight over the public option. No matter what the squabbling Senate Finance Committee winds up agreeing on, it’ll be Obama, together with Harry Reid, who decides what the Senate ultimately votes on, and how that...

Senate Finance Panel Agrees at Last—to Fund Abstinence Ed

Conrad, Lincoln, join GOP to pass measure

(Newser) - On the same day it voted to kill Democrats' hopes for a health bill with a public option, the Senate Finance Committee showed the love to abstinence. Committee Republicans displayed a little nostalgia for the Bush administration, voting to restore $50 million a year in federal funding for abstinence-only education...

Public Option Fails in Finance Committee

Ball's in Reid's court

(Newser) - The Senate Finance Committee voted down both proposed versions of the public option this afternoon, setting up a showdown between conservative Democrats—who sided with Republicans in opposing the creation of a government plan to compete with private insurers—and their liberal colleagues. Jay Rockefeller's amendment failed, 15-8, shortly before...

Public Option Lives—If the Left Pushes Hard Enough

Nancy Pelosi still wants it in House-Senate compromise

(Newser) - As health care reform chugs through the Senate Finance Committee, Mike Madden checks in on the prospects for a public option and finds it's not quite dead yet. A big test comes today when the committee votes on amendments from supporters of the public option, such as Jay Rockefeller. "...

Baucus Leaning Left Again
 Baucus Leaning Left Again 
ANALYSIS

Baucus Leaning Left Again

As interminable mark-up on health bill continues, chair moves on from bipartisan dream

(Newser) - With his health care reform bill finally in committee, finance chair Max Baucus appears to have given up on a truly bipartisan bill. On day one yesterday, "he seemed to be moving back to the left again," writes Mike Madden in Salon. He agreed to a host of...

Baucus Sweetens Subsidies as Bill Goes to Mark-Up

Democrats, Republican Snowe wanted lower costs for health insurance

(Newser) - The Senate Finance Committee finally meets today to consider Max Baucus' health care reform bill—a bill Baucus has already reworked to counter complaints that it puts too much burden on the middle class. Baucus has upped subsidies to those too strapped to buy insurance, and says he may also...

Will Real Senate Leaders Please Stand Up?

Kennedy's death left a void—and no one is stepping up to fill it

(Newser) - As Democrats fight among themselves over health care, it’s becoming painfully clear that they lack a clear public leader on the issue, writes Manu Raju for Politico. In part it’s because, with a number of House and Senate committees involved, there are too many cooks stirring the pot,...

564 Amendments Await Baucus Bill Next Week

(Newser) - Well, this should zip right along: Members of both parties on the Senate Finance Committee have drafted no fewer than 564 amendments to be considered when the panel takes up chairman Max Baucus' health care bill next week, reports Bloomberg. Expect to hear the phrases "public option"—Democrat...

Baucus Bill Gives Obama a Route to Compromise
Baucus Bill Gives Obama
a Route to Compromise
Analysis

Baucus Bill Gives Obama a Route to Compromise

White House serene amidst complaints

(Newser) - It may not look like anyone’s happy with Max Baucus’ health care bill, but it has some very important backers: the health care industries it seeks to reform. Influential players who long ago struck a bargain with the Obama administration “found elements to dislike,” writes Ceci Connolly...

Baucus Unveils Health Care Bill
 Baucus Unveils Health Care Bill 

Baucus Unveils Health Care Bill

Compromise legislation would cost $856 million over 10 years

(Newser) - Max Baucus has officially unveiled his 223-page, $856 billion health care bill, intended to be a blueprint for a bipartisan compromise on reform, though GOP backing has evaporated, the Wall Street Journal reports. That $856 billion price tag is a surprise, lower than the $1 trillion-plus cost estimates of earlier...

Baucus Touts His Bipartisan Bill—Alone

(Newser) - Max Baucus took to the Wall Street Journal opinion page today to make the case for the health care reform bill he’s unveiling this morning. “Our plan would lower costs and would not add to the federal deficit,” he declares in the first of many statements about...

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