Democrats on the Hill wondering where the White House stands on how to power through a health care bill believe they got a few hints from President Obama’s town hall speech Friday when he detailed elements of the plans he likes best.
It was the clearest indication from the president since Democrats lost their 60-seat U.S. Senate supermajority when Republican Scott Brown won his race in Massachusetts. Some Democrats feared Obama would pivot away from health care entirely but the White House suggested that was just a cooling off period following the election.
Administration officials spent much of the weekend attempting to reassure Democrats that Obama won’t walk away from health care, but there was little movement in a clear way to get a final bill through both the House and Senate.
Sources told TPMDC they believe the president was giving them some direction with his remarks in Ohio.
White House officials are keeping the cards close to the vest, but here are the provisions Obama highlighted as “actually very simple” and included in both bills:
* Forbidding insurance companies from imposing a “lifetime cap where if you really get sick and suddenly there’s some fine print in there that says you’re not completely covered.”
* Capping out-of-pocket expenses.
* If you’ve got a preexisting condition, you can actually still get health insurance.
* Young adults up to age 27 can still remain on their parent’s insurance “until they’ve got a more stable job.”
Obama said some ask why not just pass those reforms “and forget everything else,” but said those provisions only work if everyone has access to coverage.
He touted the creation of a pool of small business owners and self-employed people that would be known as an “exchange” to allow for better insurance rates, he said.
He also said that a streamlined health care system that relied more heavily on sharing of tests and digital medical records would lower costs overall.
“This is our best chance to do it,” Obama said.
House Democrats initially entertained the idea of putting a new, smaller health care bill with those reforms onto the floor for passage tomorrow, but the idea fell apart.
“It’s a way they can do it so don’t need to start the process all over again,” a leadership aide told TPMDC.
How to do that technically is actually fairly easy, the aide said – attaching the new measure as a substitute to the already-passed Senate bill.
The problem is, there’s no guarantee the Senate would go along with it.
White House adviser David Axelrod said on ABC’s This Week that Obama believes the core elements he outlined are “too important to walk away from.”
“What he’s saying is, ‘Let’s get back to it,'” Axelrod said.
Here’s another piece on the confusion, with Sen. Sherrod Brown telling TPMDC Obama’s strategy isn’t clear.
