Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) has released a 220-page health reform package that ties provider payments to better quality of care and includes a raft of changes to Medicare, Medicaid and the health insurance markets. Called America's Healthy Futures Act, the total cost of the package comes in at $856 billion over 10 years.
The bill does not contain provisions to establish a government-run insurance plan, the so-called "public option" touted by President Barack Obama and his more liberal supporters to bring more competition to the insurance market.
But its many concessions, including omission of the public option, have not translated into support from Republicans or even some moderate Democrats. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on Baucus' Finance Committee, said late Tuesday that he would not support the bill.
“I'm disappointed because it looks like we're being pushed aside by the Democratic leadership so the Senate can move forward on a bill that, up to this point, does not meet the shared goals for affordable, accessible health coverage that we set forth when this process began,” Grassley said in a written statement.
Minnesota Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken as well as Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) are calling on one of their colleagues to reconsider a proposed fee on medical device manufacturers as part of the healthcare reform bill moving through Congress.
In the letter, which will go to Baucus, the senators say the proposed fee will threaten thousands of U.S. jobs and deter innovation in the industry.
