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Medicare Bill Supporters Confident of Passage

by David E. Rosenbaum and Robert Pear, the New York Times

November 19, 2003

 

With senators and representatives back in the Capitol for the first time since negotiators agreed on legislation to overhaul Medicare last weekend, supporters of the measure expressed confidence on Tuesday that it would be passed within a week. At the same time, some opponents raised doubts about whether they had enough votes to block the bill.

"Are we going to be home for Thanksgiving with everything completed?" asked Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee , the Republican leader. "The answer is yes."

Still, the Bush administration and the bill's sponsors scrambled all day to shore up support from conservative Republicans who fear that the measure does too little to transform the federal insurance program for the elderly and disabled, and from moderates in both parties who worry that one of the most popular programs ever devised by the government will be undermined.

Dr. Frist spoke to reporters after Republican senators heard a lunchtime pep talk from Vice President Dick Cheney and Tommy G. Thompson, the secretary of health and human services.

At a Democratic lunch, Senators Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan passionately attacked the legislation, saying many beneficiaries would be worse off. The two Democrats who helped write it, Max Baucus of Montana and John B. Breaux of Louisiana , spoke up for the bill.

The bill would allocate $400 billion over the next 10 years, mostly for prescription drug coverage for 40 million people 65 and older or disabled. It would also give private health plans a much larger role in Medicare.

If the bill is adopted, the Bush administration said Tuesday, about 35 percent of Medicare beneficiaries would be in private health plans by 2007, about triple the proportion today. Congressional budget analysts put the figure much lower.

The actual legislation had not been published by Tuesday, and many lawmakers said they were still undecided. Dr. Frist and the Senate Democratic leader, Tom Daschle of South Dakota , said vote counting had just begun.

All day, Republican leaders brandished Monday's endorsement of the plan by AARP, the most influential organization of older Americans. "The conferees and AARP just want to strengthen Medicare, and the Democrats just want to demagogue it," said Representative Tom DeLay of Texas , the majority leader.

But some AARP members objected to the endorsement. Paul R. Latta, legislative chairman of the AARP chapter in Raleigh , N.C. , said he had lost faith in the organization.

Representative Lois Capps, Democrat of California, said she had resigned from AARP in protest. "I was stunned and offended when I learned that you ignored the will of your members and endorsed the Medicare bill pending before Congress," Ms. Capps said in a letter to William D. Novelli, chief executive of AARP.

Lawmakers said they were still tinkering with parts of the bill, including a section that would cut Medicare payments for cancer drugs, to address the concerns of some members of Congress.

In the House, Republicans intensified their efforts to nail down support, which is one of Mr. Bush's top domestic priorities. Some conservative Republicans, like Representative Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania , said they could not support the measure, but Republican leaders said they were still confident that the House would approve it.

By a vote of 237 to 176, the House on Tuesday reaffirmed its support for legislation that would allow imports of low-cost prescription drugs from Canada and Europe . Several lawmakers said they could not support the Medicare bill because it did not allow such imports by consumers or pharmacists.

In the Senate, Democratic opponents stopped short of threatening a filibuster, which might be their only hope of stopping the measure from being passed. "It's fairly risky for those who would like to filibuster," said Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey.

Mr. Baucus came out of the Democratic lunch full of confidence that many Democratic senators would wind up voting for the legislation. "It'll pass," he said. "It won't be filibustered."

Mr. Baucus suggested that 10 or more Democratic senators might break with their leaders and vote for the legislation. But Republican senators were not solid either.

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