Pelosi: Needed Changes To Senate Health Bill 'Aren't Minor Tweaks'

The latest Democratic plan for health reform calls for the House to pass the Senate bill in exchange for the promise of a supplementary compromise bill that, through the use of the budget reconciliation process, would only require 51 votes. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stressed on Thursday that the eventual additions and changes are going to have to be considerable.

"We're not talking about minor tweaks," Pelosi told reporters at her weekly press conference. "Our bills are about 75 percent the same, perhaps 80. The President optimistically says 90, and maybe he knows something I don't know about what's going to happen in the Senate. But there are some areas where we're not the same, and we have to find a way to move forward."

Some of those areas, Pelosi said, are "very important." Key insurance reforms -- an end to rescission and discrimination based on preexisting conditions, for example -- require basic enforcement provisions to prevent the health industry from simply passing the costs of reform onto consumers, she said.

"I would not say they're minor tweaks," Pelosi said. "No, it's more serious than that." Congress needs to "move quickly," she said, though she did not offer a timeframe for passage.

Comments

[tompoe]

02:25 PM on 01/30/2010

On the other hand, Pelosi could have honored the wishes of the vast majority of Americans, and put Single Payer (that's what the rest of the world knows as the lowest cost, most effective way to deliver our right to health care use) on the table. Pelosi is a bottom-feeder, interested in corporate bribes, at the expense of providing our legal right to health care. The continuing loss of tens of thousands of American lives, while she blathers about, is criminal, at best.

[LibVikingWarrior]

07:43 AM on 01/29/2010

MANY people use the word socialism and government takeover and other words to scare people. These words do NOT have a negative conotation..on the contrary ...they have a very direct meaning ...especially to the people that are suffering right now ...have lost their home or all they have to pay for an insurance ....which should be just that ...a backstop...a safety net ...a preservation of a way of life that if you buy into ...work hard ..save ...get ahead ...that you won't have in the blink of an eye it ALL taken away from you ...just because you get sick...

In Canada and in most other western democracies ...the crux of the matter is twofold (2 )

DO people of higher means help pay more for people thay have little or nothing? ...and the answer is yes in those countries but NOT in the US.

Can Insurance companies in some of those countries co-exist with the government ? ..and again the answer is yes (ONLY ) with strict regulation and the guiding principle that yes ...capitalism ..or a commericial entity can make a profit ...just NOT one that is OBSCENE...

so there you have it ..argue away one way or the other ..but it ALL boils down to that ...and now the few people that stand in the way have to vote and wrestle with their morals ... ...

if they have any?”

Single Payer of AT LEAST a strong public option !

[LibVikingWarrior]

06:16 AM on 01/29/2010

if you are against health care reform you are;

- easily duped by disinformation and fearmongering
-being paid by some lobbyist and owe your soul to them as long as you are voted back in
-are a member of the republican party and vote according to what Rush Limbaugh tells you to
-are white and cannot be for ANYTHING that a black man is (even if he is right)
-are rich and just don't care
-HAVE insurance paid for you and just don't care
-HAVE never been sick and just don't care or think about it
-don't believe the mound of truth in statistics that the system is broken
-don't care that YOU pay 1000 dollars for everybody that uses emergency rooms without insurance
-don't care if people suffer with the worry of paying health bills or that they lose everything they have along with their families( inclusive of innocent children )
-don't care that 62% of personal bankruptcies are related to medical bills
.don't care that single payer is the best and most efficient system implemented in most other western
democracies
-don't care that people may d1e as a result from one or all of the above..

HOW is that American ? or even human -- ?

SINGLE PAYER OR STRONG PUBLIC OPTION (at least) !!

and a shout out to Cali ...BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS FOR ALL! (.) PERIOD” !

[lj50307]

03:20 AM on 01/29/2010

yea they need to read the damn thing first

[talkitreal]

02:26 AM on 01/29/2010

HEY NANCY: WHY DON'T YOU STOP TALKING ABOUT MOVING QUICKLY, AND ACTUALLY DO IT!

[Coinyer101]

06:40 PM on 01/28/2010

Kucinich says the HC bill still sucks and shouldn't pass. It is bs giveaway to hi companies. I'm sticking by Kucinich.....,


Corporadems pass this, expect more 'Massachussettses' in Nov.

[TeeLolly]

11:40 PM on 01/28/2010

Finally, a voice of reason. All of a sudden, everyone seems to be championing the same bill that was drawing sharp criticism until the Massachusetts election--even though the polls after that loss made it clear that Dems should not rush to pass corporate giveaways like the Senate healthcare "reform" bill.

[Helzapoppin]

05:54 PM on 01/28/2010

Pelosi talks a good game, but I have no doubt she'll likely cave.

[113]

05:45 PM on 01/28/2010

....and no talk of a public option or medicare expansion...sigh

[USMCpatriot]

06:57 PM on 01/28/2010

Good, it should be trashed entirely, refer to the Constitution and Big Government should go away.

[onegandolf1]

10:22 PM on 01/28/2010

That seems to be what they all say until someone tries to cut their pet program. Then it's "Leave my Social Security alone", or" Don't touch my medicare".

[The Cause Endures]

12:03 AM on 01/29/2010

You mean, the same Constitution with the Commerce Clause that grants Congress the authority to regulate interstate and intrastate commerce, such as health insurance?

You armchair Constitutional scholars really should just stick to watching your fishing shows or whatever it is you do.

[Libra28]

05:14 PM on 01/28/2010

Take back your power! You can Do something constructive!

Please sign the petition for the Senate to use reconciliation to pass a public option with 51 votes.

go to:
http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/po_reconciliation/

So far over 103,300 people have signed.

[den1953]

05:13 PM on 01/28/2010

Yeah tweak it with a trash can and write it over single payer get every special interests out of it and do it for the American people.

[NOV42008]

05:05 PM on 01/28/2010

Barack should ask Eric Holder to write him one of those special letters Yoo wrote Bush giving him power to pass public option.

[liberalOrgonian]

05:01 PM on 01/28/2010

Out of the leaders in this reform, I trust Nancy Pelosi will stand behind and push for a better bill for the people of this country.
If politicians refuse to fight for the best of us, it will look like they are fine selling us into the FOR PROFIT INSURANCE CARTEL, both dems and repubs alike.
Had we had a PO in a final bill, I believe the Mass elections would have been different. Had there been a PO, and costs were sure to less, they too would want this reform.

Repubs who say the people do not want Insurance reform are lying and failing us. They seem fine with the thousand of death within our country? We need to expose the party of pro life as a hoax. This is not the Christianity I grew up to know. I see few moral pro life decisions from repucons. They just can't stand behind Christianity any more.
On another note:
Watching Judd Greg this am on MSNBC, BOY was he testy, angry, rude and attacking.
He shows he does not have a understanding of how to get this country out of a recession.
His ideas are President Hoover when we need FDR.
More repub bla bla bla. Those saying NO have failed to help and have policies which will keep the country in this recession.

[rougebaisers]

04:04 PM on 01/28/2010

You can take that bill and shove it.

[shivasquest]

02:22 PM on 01/28/2010

How do we get a good bill passed?
Do what bush would do......

Slate readers suggest some strategies:

Seventh runner-up: George W. Bush, Crawford, Texas (as imagined by Michael W. Price): Declare that the U.S. is at war with the forces of Death and Disease. Seek a joint resolution stating the same. Scare up support by telling voters they're all going to die. Have the office of legal counsel draft a memo declaring that the president has the inherent and unfettered authority to protect the nation against the evil "Duo of Demise." Implement the preferred version of health care reform through a secret executive order and pay for it with the 2010 war supplemental. Repeat as needed.

[Kenji]

02:16 PM on 01/28/2010

"More Thank 'Minor Tweaks"?

Hey, HP editors: ever re-read your headlines?