Dems near consensus on sweeping overhaul of health-care

WASHINGTON — A broad consensus among Democratic leaders on the contours of legislation to remake the nation's health-care system appeared to be developing Tuesday as three House committee chairmen outlined a bill generally similar to one being written in the Senate.

Democratic leaders in the House and the Senate said they would require individuals to carry insurance and employers to help pay for it. But they have not decided how to raise the necessary tax revenue.

Leaders in both chambers said they wanted to establish a new public health-insurance program, which would compete with private insurers. But they have not settled on the details.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., reaffirmed his desire to begin taxing some employer-provided health benefits, as a way to help pay for coverage of the uninsured.

After slamming the door on that idea in May, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., opened the door a crack Tuesday.

Asked whether he would consider taxing such benefits, Rangel said, "There is nothing, no matter how stupid it sounds, that I am rejecting."

The three House chairmen — Rangel and Reps. George Miller and Henry Waxman, both California Democrats — are drafting a single bill. They summarized the bill Tuesday at a meeting of the House Democratic Caucus.

The bill would allow people to enroll in a government-run health-insurance plan similar to Medicare.

By contrast, some Senate Democrats are trying to limit the scope of any new government plan, in an effort to persuade some Republicans to vote for their legislation.

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., suggested that the public plan might take the form of an insurance cooperative, owned and operated for the benefit of its members — individuals and businesses with fewer than 10 employees.

This proposal, floated as a compromise, seemed to intrigue Republicans who were familiar with cooperatives that market items as varied as electric power, telephone service, milk and wheat.

Some Senate Republicans, however, reacted negatively when Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., introduced his long-awaited plan — 615 pages, written with little GOP involvement.

"There is a lot of concern in the Republican caucus, concern that I share, that the administration is trying to rush the bill through," said Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Republican. "That is a mistake. There is a lot of goodwill. There is a lot of interest in working cooperatively with the administration, but if the bill is jammed through the Senate, that goodwill will dissipate very quickly."

The Kennedy bill was the first — and probably one of the most liberal — of three versions that Senate Democrats plan to introduce in coming weeks.

Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi, the senior Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee chaired by Kennedy, charged Democrats with simply shutting out the minority in a drive to pump up government control of the health-care industry.

"I have never been treated this way before," said Enzi, who has worked closely with Kennedy on other legislation.

Enzi and 15 other GOP senators sent a letter to senior Democrats asking for more time to consider legislation and evaluate its costs.

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., who is leading work on the bill as Kennedy battles a malignant brain tumor, said Democrats were not excluding Republicans, who will meet with Democrats today to discuss the bill.

"I want my Republican colleagues to know I want their ideas, I want to hear what they have to say," Dodd said, calling the bill "an opening step."