WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
Lawmakers on both sides of the U.S. Capitol made significant progress on healthcare reform on Wednesday, with a group of Democratic conservatives reaching agreement with party leaders in the House of Representatives on a bill.
Senate Republican and Democratic senators negotiating a healthcare reform deal also got a boost from congressional budget analysts who priced their bill at less than $900 billion -- below some cost estimates of $1 trillion or more.
In the House, members of the so-called "Blue Dog" conservative coalition on the House Energy and Commerce Committee reached a deal with Democratic leadership after days of long negotiations.
Representative Mike Ross, a group leader, told reporters the bill would be moved to the committee for consideration later on Wednesday but the full House would not take the issue up until September after it returns from its month-long break.
He said the deal would shave $100 billion off the $1 trillion price tag, making it more palatable to fiscal conservatives in both parties.
In the Senate, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said the Congressional Budget Office reported the legislation would reduce the federal deficit, spur growth in employer-provided health coverage and provide insurance coverage to 95 percent of Americans.
The CBO report also could help ease concerns about the hefty price tag for the broad overhaul of healthcare being negotiated in the U.S. Congress.
A group of three Democrats and three Republicans on the Senate Finance panel have edged closer to a deal this week that could form the heart of an eventual Senate healthcare plan.
"I am confident they will get a bill ... a bipartisan bill will come out of that committee," Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid told reporters.
Senator Charles Grassley, one of the panel's three Republicans involved in the talks, said in a Reuters interview the negotiators were making great progress but tough issues remained on financing and cost containment.
President Barack Obama has pinpointed healthcare as his top legislative priority and has pushed lawmakers to quickly reach a deal to rein in healthcare costs, improve care and cover most of the 46 million uninsured Americans.
Obama had asked both the Senate and House to come up with initial draft bills before they leave for their August recess, but that deadline is dead in the Senate and nearly impossible in the House.
PUBLIC PLAN IDEA DIMS
Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee said on Tuesday the six negotiators were close to success in bipartisan talks, even if the full panel does not take up the bill before Congress goes on a month-long break on August 7.
Senate Finance negotiations focused on a plan that would use nonprofit cooperatives to compete with private insurers to drive down costs, not the government option plan favored by Obama and many other Democrats.
Shares of U.S. health insurers rose broadly on Tuesday on hopes that negotiators were moving away from the public plan idea, which has drawn strong opposition from insurers who fear it would destroy the private marketplace.
The Senate panel also is likely to back a tax on high-cost insurance policies to raise revenue and keep costs down.
Dick Durbin, the Senate's second-ranked Democrat, said the lack of a public insurance option in the Finance bill was not what he and many other Democrats wanted, but he was encouraging senators to stay patient.
"I have urged all my colleagues to stick with the process and realize the first vote is not the last vote," he told reporters. "This is the first inning and it's a long ballgame."
The bipartisan negotiations pleased healthcare industry officials.
"We applaud the efforts of Baucus and Grassley to try to make it a bipartisan approach because we think that will be thoroughly vetted and one where I think we're going to get more sustainable solutions coming out of it," said WellPoint CEO Angela Braly in interview with Reuters.
Obama, who has put considerable political capital on the line in the healthcare debate, traveled to North Carolina and Virginia on Wednesday for campaign-style events aimed at telling Americans why insurance reform means more security and stability for them and their families.
"This is about people's lives. This is about people's businesses. This is about our future," Obama told a "town hall"-style event in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The White House said Obama would outline eight specific consumer protections he thinks are needed. They include: no discrimination for preexisting conditions, only reasonable out-of-pocket expenses, no dropping of coverage for serious illness, no gender discrimination, no annual or lifetime caps and extended coverage for young adults.
(Additional reporting by David Alexander, writing by John Whitesides; editing by Vicki Allen)
