I chatted with Congressional Black Caucus President Barbara Lee yesterday, just after she met with President Obama at the White House. The President called two back-to-back meetings with Congressional Democrats, urging them to put aside their disagreements on health care reform in order to pass the bill. His first meeting was with leaders from the Tri-Caucus (the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus) and the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who expressed concerns about the Senate bill being too watered down.
"We raised our disappointment that the public option was not on the table, and neither is an expansion of Medicare, nor a national exchange," said Congresswoman Lee. "I wanted to hear from him what would ensure the accountability of the insurance companies, what's going to bring down the cost of health care, and how we can maximize coverage for people who need it."
The President tried to allay their concerns by repeating his claim that this bill would cover 31 million uninsured people, a step on which they all approve. He also explained that it would establish a commission that will review rates before insurance companies can raise them--an interesting idea, but one that falls short of the public option preferred by House progressives that would ensure competition.
With so many Democrats in the House disapproving of the more conservative Senate bill, it puts a wrench in the process for moving forward. President Obama wants to proceed by having the House vote first on the exact Senate bill, and after that the two chambers would fine-tune the bill with compromises that everyone can live with. Finally, the Senate would pass it through the reconciliation procedure, with a 51-vote majority. As Congresswoman Lee explained, it's a contentious plan.
"I asked what assurances we have that the fixes are going to be real and actually take place," she said. "If the House passes the Senate bill first, and then the fixes are supposed to happen after that, that's a lot of trust we've got to have. He said he's going to make sure that those assurances are there. How he's going to do that, I'm not sure."
So, will Democrats be able to cross the finish line? "I think what the President is doing now is one more step forward. He's listening, and we all have to try to figure out how to make it work," said Lee. "We can't not do health care reform. This is a moral issue we have to address, but we have to do it in a way that doesn't allow insurance companies to increase their rates and deny coverage and continue to hold patients hostage. So we have to figure this out."
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