Baucus, Conrad Cave To Joe Wilson On Health Care Bill

WASHINGTON — The White House strengthened its stand against health care coverage for illegal immigrants Friday, and a pivotal Senate committee looked ready to follow its lead.

The developments reflected a renewed focus on the issue in the days since a Republican congressman's outburst during President Barack Obama's health care speech to Congress on Wednesday night. Republican Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina shouted "You lie!" as Obama said illegal immigrants wouldn't be covered under his health plan.

Democrats had pointed to provisions in House and Senate legislation that prohibited illegal immigrants from getting federal subsidies that would be offered to lower-income Americans to help them buy insurance.

That didn't go far enough for Wilson or many other Republicans, who noted the absence of any enforcement mechanism or requirement for verification of legal status. There are some 7 million illegal immigrants in this country who lack health insurance, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

The issue has caused heat on talk radio and at congressional town halls, too. So on Friday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs sketched a new position that goes even further than some conservative critics had demanded: Obama will oppose letting illegal immigrants buy insurance through new purchasing exchanges the government will set up – even from private companies operating within the exchanges.

"Illegal immigrants would not be allowed to access the exchange that is set up," Gibbs said. Verification requirements are "something we'd work out with Congress," he said.

Currently illegal immigrants are barred from government-funded care except in certain emergency cases, but many buy private insurance and there's nothing to prevent them from doing that. That would change under the White House's proposal, which is certain to alarm some on the left.

White House officials contended that the policy didn't represent a change of position for Obama, but it's one he apparently hasn't articulated in the past. In his speech Wednesday, Obama said only that "the reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally."

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The proposed new marketplace, or exchange, would allow consumers and small businesses to shop for insurance and compare prices in a regulated, competitive environment. The exchange has been built into all the health bills moving through the House and Senate.

Private companies could offer health coverage through the exchange if they meet certain criteria and if Congress created a new government-run plan that would be offered through the exchange, too.

Illegal immigrants were to be allowed in the exchange and even in the public plan if they used their own money under legislation that passed three committees in the House and one in the Senate. Before Friday, there was little indication that that would change, even in the crucial Senate Finance Committee, which is facing a deadline of early next week to complete a comprehensive health bill.

In explaining its new position, the White House said that illegal immigrants could continue to buy insurance in the private insurance market outside the exchange, which would shrink with the creation of the exchange but still exist.

The issue of illegal immigration also bedeviled the so-called Gang of Six of three Democrats and three Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee, who met Friday trying to reach elusive bipartisan agreement on that and other contentious issues.

One of the negotiators, Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said that after Obama's speech the group revisited its illegal immigrant provisions to make sure legislative language would enforce requirements for people to have valid Social Security numbers before getting government-subsidized coverage.

"What we are trying to prevent is anyone who is here illegally from getting any federal benefit," Conrad told reporters. He didn't specify whether illegal immigrants would be allowed into the exchange, but Friday evening, a Democratic Finance Committee aide said that although nothing was finalized, the committee was expected to follow the White House's lead and bar illegal immigrants from the exchange.

Finance Committee aides will be working through the weekend to finalize language on illegal immigration and other issues, including abortion, medical malpractice and how much states must pay for a Medicaid expansion.

It could become clear as early as Monday, when the group next meets, whether Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., gets the bipartisan deal he's been seeking for months.

Comments

[Grant Morrison]

..

Just TELL them what's going to happen and DO IT. Don't be FRIENDS with EVIL, don't work with EVIL.

I didn't vote for Obama to have him make nice with the falangists. If they had their way we wouldn't have MINIMUM WAGE LAWS, HEALTH law, DRUG PURITY law, FOOD PURITY law, or ANY of these "socialist" things that make America BETTER than the rest of the world.

If the Republican'ts had their way America would be CHINA. A country with underpayed, overworked citzens and NO social accountablitiy for corporations.

MAKE THEM go along or be LEFT BEHIND.

.

[balmora]

The plan being proposed by Baucus would cover about 95 percent of Americans. Illegal immigrants would not receive government benefits, but the estimated cost would be under $880 billion over 10 years. It would however require everyone to get coverage either through an employer, on their own or through a government plan.

[rkfdred]

It would seem to me that a public option that anyone could buy into, or even better, single payer, would be a win for everyone. It's ridiculous that people expect their employer to provide health insurance but it has happened because it is too costly for the average guy. If it was affordable so people could buy it on their own, they wouldn't lose coverage, they might actually make better wages because their employer wasn't paying for their health care and the companies may actually be able to compete better globally. I would prefer a medicare for all scenario, provided there was a good funding mechanism. I don't think it would be that difficult. When I hear what some families are paying to private insurance companies, I know they could afford anything the government would have to offer. The big difference is there would be no CEOs getting rich off the millions of Americans who pay premiums for services they will never receive.

[okalyddude]

I have a question: what if we got all the free minded progressive thinking dems and repubs and voted out EVERYONE in the government and required that a new party be put in its place that will do the ONLY THING THAT WILL SAVE THIS COUNTRY:

Proportional representation.
More than 2 parties.
Make your votes count.
More ballot initiatives in all states.

There's only one law in political science, and it states that in elections like the US has, there will only be 2 major parties, ever.

What does that create? Bickering, fighting, and a lack of progress.

Even open minded conservatives should agree that their party does NOT represent them the majority of the time.

What if there was a Workers party, that focused primarily on benifits for workers, unions etc.
A Youth Party
A Christian Party
A fiscal conservative party
A welfare party

What if you only had to get 3 or 5% in a district to get representation, and 3-5% nationwide?

How many parties do you think we would have in our government?

Higher % threshold means fewer parties (turkey has 10%, but often parties get 9% and probably SHOULD have seats but don't)

Sometimes Germany (with 3% I think) has too many parties and it dissolves to bickering between 2 or 3 blocks of parties, and they get what we have, only with 10 parties forming alliances.

I'm sure we can find a middle ground.

[ScapeGoat]

Get rid of contributions to run for office. Make the elections publically funded. Then the politicians will not be beholding to rich and big corporations and then the politicos may be more interesed in doing the right thing as opposed to doing what is necessary to raise money to get elected.

[okalyddude]

Baucus is a puppet of the insurance giants. They pay for his elections, and he somehow gets to be the head of this committee?

What a sham and a joke of democracy.

Single payer is off the table even though the majority of Americans want it.

Even though it would benefit the majority of people.

Bush invades a country when most people oppose it under the guise of "it's for the best to protect ya'll"

well why can't Obama just tell the Dems to grow a pair, tell the blue dogs that he will oppose their reelections because they were bought out by the insurance giants, and slam the reform through FOR THE GOOD OF THE PEOPLE (even the ignorant ones who protest against it will benefit!)

Is it possibly because the insurance giants have bought Obama? He says that they "provide a service" what a LIE - they provide paper work and take money, then don't give out on promises. They watch people die for profit. How is that a service?

LET THEM ALL GO BANKRUPT - THEY DESERVE IT. Can I start a company where I require people to pay me money on the pretense of paying them back, then just never do it? I'd be a millionaire, just like them!

[letsmakesense]

Everything you wrote is true. Obama reps the banks and insurance companys. Not us. Your idea about more Parties is correct. Each Party representing a group of people or common interest of people after they fight it out to see who wins the re run run off elections once in office will find better solutions for us than the global bankers will..

[ReedYoung]

fta, quote:
That didn't go far enough for Wilson or many other Republicans, who noted the absence of any enforcement mechanism or requirement for verification of legal status.
/quote

We're usually joking when we Liberals call Republicans illiterate. So write the enforcement mechanism and verification requirements and request they be added as amendments to the bills that you think need them. If you try, and Democrats refuse, only then might you have something to complain about. If you do nothing, and nothing happens, you're just like the Welfare queens you a-holes made up in the 1980s.

[balmora]

That was already done. Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., had offered an amendment that would have prevented illegal aliens from receiving government­-subsidize­d healthcare under the proposed plan, but the House Ways and Means Committee nixed the Heller amendment by a 26-to-15 vote.

[okalyddude]

But it's an unnecessary amendment: the bill already stipulates that they cannot buy into the system: they need to have documentation of work or citizenship.

The reason that they won't pass an amendment saying that NO illegals will EVER get government subsidized health care is because there ARE circumstances where it'll be necessary (even repubs admit this)

What about child birth?
What about infectious disease?
There's surely more examples of when it would be needed.

[AvidReader19]

They are all crooks! I say vote all the regressives out unless they agree to campaign finance reform. They are prostitutes to corporations now.

[Grannyover70]

What do you call it when Big businesses get special tax credit abatement by Local, State and Federal Government. How about when they receive land and start-up money to induce them to build in a certain area. They keep all the Sales Tax they Collect, which takes money away from schools, roads, etc. Then taxes have to be raised on everyone for funds for the schools, roads, etc. Then when that tax abatement is totally collected they move on down the road and receive another abatement. How many cities have givena tax abatement and passed a tax for large Sports arenas which are for the benefit of privately owned Sports FranchisesI People have to think . These programs do not give a proportionate increase in jobs, especially when you consider all the people they run out of business because they have an unfair advantage. What about the subsidies given to farmers, especially the large corporate farmers. The way some people think, they should be calling these Socialistic programs and yelling their heads off. Where is the outrage of the outrageous people?

[ReedYoung]

I call that creeping fascism, but then, I know what that word actually means. I don't believe Repunklicans do.

[STEW2949]

As an ex-pat Brit I can tell you from experience that the UK health service is not only moral it works, just fine. Not without issues (what is ever perfect) it doesn't discriminate, or ask for your ID or insurance coverage when you arrive at the Doctor's surgery or hospital..­.......you get treated equally, oh and UK doctors are qualified and highly motivated to heal. Making profit from sickness is disgusting and to neglect a growing under-class of uninsured people makes us all a part of a massive crime. A crime that costs lives and rewards pigs who sit in ivory towers conniving to stop payments for the sick, and bolster profits to obscene levels! By the way many of our US citizens have found themselves falling ill in Europe, becoming hospitalized, cured and never asked for a dime! They're geared up to cure the sick not waste their time creating an invoice! Come on America WAKE UP......we're all here for such a short time, let's care for each other.

[kankan]

Actions speak louder than words. Fact remains no Republican initiative has ever been developed to reform America's carnivorous health care system, only feeding the beast. They need to shut up and let the adults do their jobs.

[maxfax]

Baucus is one bought and paid for politician, long live the corporations, down with "the people."

[MighteeAphrodite]

To Wilk.

Yes, there is a problem. Those who are in this country illegally must apply for citizenship.

In the meantime many of us who have health care, either through employers or individual policies are either being dropped by insurance companies when getting seriously ill, or finding themselves underinsured and
facing credit- wrecking medical bills.

Obstructionists need to connect the dots. (not saying this about you). And not the pimples on the ass of progress.

Affordable health care for all is essential.

Thank for responding to my comment.

[MighteeAphrodite]

To Wilk "Yeah, but they did it the right way - not jumping over a fence."

Is your solution to build higher fences.


Please find a way to offer health care to all citizens and to those who wlll become so.

[Wilk]

the solution is to abide by the law (not to mention common freakin courtesy) and do things the right way. Instead they want to cheat at the expense of others. I ask you - how does that help anything?

[HLL]

Rob Miller, the Democratic Iraq war veteran who is running against Wilson next year, has raised almost $900,000 on the below included site, since Wilson called President Obama a liar.

To donate to Rob Miller: http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/19079

I donated $25 bucks to Mr. Miller and and I'm not even from South Carolina but after Sanford and Wilson, I figured South Carolina needed a break, as do the American people.

[Isosoles]

Sucker, you're backing a loser

[Grannyover70]

Talk about Suckers. I bet you really admire Palin.

[MighteeAphrodite]

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

Inscription on the Statue of Liberty.


Even if the protestors were dropped off by the mother ship at the crop circles, their descendants were immigrants once too.

Please find a way to offer health care to all who are citizens and to those who will become so.

[Wilk]

Yeah, but they did it the right way - not jumping over a fence.

[probo]

If employers woudn't hire them, they wouldn't come. Time to jail and fine those responsible , then we will see. You blame the ones simply looking for a way to feed their families and not the ones who profit from their labor.