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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