Max Baucus (D-MT), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has drafted a compromise measure on health care financing reform, and President Obama will address a joint session of Congress and the Nation this evening at 8:00.
Carrie Budoff Brown and Chris Frates of The Politico published an article yesterday entitled "Max Baucus to Gang of Six: Time is Running Out." Baucus and other Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee have been negotiating a compromise with three Republicans (Chuck Grassley, Mike Enzi, and Olympia Snowe), and Baucus has given the Republicans until 10:00 this morning to respond to his proposed bill. Brown and Frates report:
Baucus has proposed legislation that does not include the public insurance option favored by liberals but does include health care cooperatives. He also supports a new tax on health insurers who provide high-cost plans and a new fee on insurance companies to pay for reform, designed to raise $6 billion per year starting in 2010.
Ezra Klein of the Washington Post posted this summary of Baucus' proposal, and he expresses his opinion of the measure in the title of another column: "Max Baucus' Not-that-Bad Health-Care Bill, and his Not-that-Great Health-Care Reform."
The President will speak to Congress and the Nation tonight and will share his vision for reforming our system of paying for health care. Before the President's "Back-to-School" speech yesterday morning, Robin Roberts of ABC News interviewed him on Good Morning America and asked what he be saying tonight on health care. The President said that he will be offering more specifics – that he will offer a plan of his own – but he declined to state whether he will insist upon adoption of a "public option."
It appears that Congress will begin moving very quickly tomorrow morning toward passage of a bill. Reform doesn't have to happen all at once, but it does have to happen soon.
