23rd Feb 2010. Congressional Democrats cautiously embraced President Barack Obama's new health care plan as their last hope for enacting a comprehensive overhaul. Republicans trashed it, dimming prospects for any deal at the bipartisan health care summit that Obama has scheduled for Thursday to try to jump-start the debate. A year after calling on Congress to act to reform the costly and inefficient U.S. health care system, Obama finally produced a plan of his own Monday. It used legislation already passed by the Senate as its starting point, making changes designed to appeal to House Democrats.
Even after months in which health care gradually turned from Obama's top domestic priority into a political albatross, Obama opted for one last attempt at full-scale legislation. It costs around $1 trillion over a decade, requires nearly everyone to be insured or pay a fine, and puts new requirements on insurance companies, including - in a ew twist responding to recent rate hikes - giving the federal government authority to block big premium increases. In the end Obama may have to settle for much less than what he proposed Monday - or nothing at all. If Obama fails on a comprehensive health care overhaul where Bill Clinton and other presidets failed before him, the chance won't come around again anytime soon.
"This is the last time out," said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, a Democrat. "So this is it. This is it." The whole endeavor will now rise or fall on Obama's ability to sell his plan at the summit Thursay, and the reaction from lawmakers and the public in the days ahead. Congressional Democrats got their first look at the proposal Monday morning. Reflecting the uncertain future of the health overhaul effort, many focused as much on the fact that Obama finally stepped in with a detailed plan of his own as on he policy details.
"The president needs to say 'This is what I'm for', and it sounds like he's done that," said Sen. Tom Carper, a Democrat. Obama's plan does not include the government insurance option sought by liberals and it dramatically scales back a tax on high-value insurance plans from theSenate bill that was opposed in the House. Individuals and small businesses would shop for insurance in regulated state-based marketplaces called exchanges.
Obama tried to avoid the mistakes Clinton made in delivering a health care proposal to Congress and telling lawmakers to pass it, but many now believehe erred in the opposite direction. Republican leaders made no secret of their contempt. "Democrats in Washington either aren't listening, or are completely ignoring what Americans across the country have been saying," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican. "Our constituents don' want yet another partisan, back-room bill that slashes Medicare for our seniors, raises a half-trillion dollars in new taxes, fines them if they don't buy the right insurance and further expands the role of government."
Medicare is the government health care program for the elderly. Rep. Eric Cantor,a Republican, assailed the proposal Tuesday as a "repackaged" version of Senate-passed legislation that the American people already have rejected.
