Baucus to Bring Health Bill Before Committee Next Week

GREG HITT

Getty Images

Sen. Max Baucus speaks to the media outside his office on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON -- Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus intends to bring a health-overhaul bill before his committee the week of Sept. 21, people familiar with the matter said.

In a private meeting with Finance Committee Democrats Wednesday, the Montana Democrat outlined his plan to move forward on legislation with or without Republican support, these people said.

More

• Obama to Endorse Public Plan in Speech
• Palin: The Bureaucratization of Health Care
• Contours of Overhaul Come Into Focus
• Wash Wire: Obama 'Still Working' on Speech

Ahead of committee action, Mr. Baucus intends to publicly release a draft of his bill, likely next week.

The Baucus bill is designed to chart a moderate course on health care. Among other things, the legislation would create a network of nonprofit health cooperatives to compete with private insurers, rather than establishing a taxpayer-backed public plan. It also would impose new levies on insurers and other health-care industries to help pay for expanding coverage to uninsured Americans.

Meeting with reporters on a flight to Walter Cronkite's memorial service in New York, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs showed some impatience with the Finance Committee. He said President Barack Obama spoke Tuesday with Mr. Baucus.

"Senator Baucus has been working with this group of senators for almost a year on getting something out of the committee," Mr. Gibbs said. "Not long after the election, the committee put out its policy white paper on health care reform last November. So obviously we're hopeful that something can get done in that committee."

Mr. Baucus met Tuesday with the "Gang of Six" group of senators negotiating a health bill. He said colleagues told him they wanted changes in his proposal. "They liked it, but they also had ideas, some changes that they would like to see, and some concerns that some of them they had," Mr. Baucus said. They made four or five significant suggestions, he added, but "there are ways to solve those."

Mr. Baucus hinted Tuesday evening that he ws ready to push ahead with his plan even if it has little or no Republican support. He said he made clear that "we're just not going to dally, we're not going to dawdle," and added: "I suspect I will be making some decisions very quickly."

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R., Maine), one of three Republicans in the negotiating group and the one who seems most likely to reach an agreement with the Democrats, called the Baucus plan "a work in progress," but she added, "It has many promising elements." Among the changes Ms. Snowe said she would like to see were a provision addressing medical malpractice lawsuits, action to relieve the Medicaid burden on the states, and an assurance that national insurance plans, not just state-based ones, be available through a proposed insurance "exchange."

Other moderate senators from both parties are awaiting the outcome of the group's talks. "We'll have to wait and see where the Gang of Six comes out and take it from there," said Sen. Ben Nelson (D., Neb.), one of the Senate's most conservative Democrats.