What the GOP Learned Over its Summer Vacation: House Republicans Try to Kill Public Option with New Amendments to H.R. 3200

BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Meg White

It ain't over 'til it's over, and nowhere is that more true then in Congress.

At the very end of July, H.R. 3200 made it through the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which punted the historic healthcare reform effort to the powerful Rules Committee on its way to the House floor. The Energy and Commerce Committee met Wednesday to consider a handful of amendments to their healthcare reform proposal which they did not have time to consider before the August recess.

The procedure used to address these left-over amendments was described by Ranking Member Joe Barton (R-TX) as a "very unusual situation," one he said he'd never seen "happen in the 25 years I've been in Congress." The procedure allowed H.R. 3200 to pass out of committee in July and be sent to the House Rules Committee to be considered and possibly merged with two other House healthcare reform bills from other relevant committees. The amendments agreed on today will be sent to that same committee for consideration.

Over a dozen amendments from Democrats -- ranging from grants for wellness programs to restructuring the way physicians would be reimbursed under the plan -- were bundled together by an agreement reached between Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Barton. Barton conceded that little if any debate was needed on these "non-controversial" measures. Indeed, they passed in a block on a voice vote.

Despite the promising beginning however, stalling tactics marred the process from the beginning. Waxman, in the interest of time, limited opening statements to one minute. Democrats declined to give statements, and after 16 Republican committee members all made very similar statements about what they learned from their angry constituents over their summer vacation, Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ) was clearly irritated.

"Nothing has changed [in the healthcare insurance situation since the recess], other than it's gotten worse," Pallone said. "I had town meetings during the August break, too... My constituents overwhelmingly support H.R. 3200 and believe strongly in what we're trying to accomplish in the bill."

After another handful of opening statements from the GOP, Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) joined in Pallone's frustration.

"We've been trying for years to get the Republicans" to move on healthcare reform, he said. "They suddenly realized in August there was a problem."

Moving away from the rhetoric, Republicans attempted to solve their problems with H.R. 3200 by offering amendments which would invalidate much of the current proposal. For example, an amendment offered by Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE), who described it as a "simple transparency, sunshine-type of amendment," was voted down along party lines 35 to 21. Democrats saw it as an attempt to undermine the health commission to be established by H.R. 3200 by requiring reporting that they considered onerous and damaging to patient privacy.

"We don't require the oil companies to be disclosed when they go into the Interior Department and get their leases," Waxman noted, adding that maybe they should. "Suddenly in this healthcare area we're going to require every communication" to be reported?

The ranking Republican seemed in favor of the amendment purely out of distaste for the commission itself. Barton expressed support for the amendment by saying that if it were up to him, he'd eliminate the commission altogether.

Along these same lines, an amendment offered by Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) and Nathan Deal (R-GA) seemed targeted at extracting the teeth that would make the public option in H.R. 3200 competitive. It would allow doctors to bill patients who use the public option for the remainder of the costs not reimbursed by the government's payments under the plan, something that private insurance companies do not allow under in-network agreements.

"This amendment is an attack on patients, as well as their families, as well as the public plan," said Pallone, noting that nearly every state in the nation has protections against the practice, also known as "balanced billing."

In response to such accusations that he was trying to attack the public plan via this amendment, Burgess seemed to agree, saying, "Let me be clear: I do not support the public option, I do not support H.R. 3200." In the end, the Burgess/Deal amendment failed to pass by a ten-vote margin.

In the one case in which the Republicans agreed to work with Democrats, they sure were proud of it. One bipartisan amendment which passed bearing the names of Reps. Gene Green (D-TX), Barton, Burgess and Waxman aims to provide more transparency by forcing healthcare providers to make public and available to patients their fees for services. Barton requested a roll-call on the amendment rather than a voice vote, "just to prove that we're really for it." In the end, the vote was unanimous.

Due to some of the parliamentary constraints on what could and could not be voted upon Wednesday, many amendments from both sides of the aisle which were not under the jurisdiction of the committee or were not budget-neutral according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) were introduced and immediately withdrawn.

Due to such constraints, the centerpiece of the Republicans' plan was also offered and withdrawn Wednesday. The Republican proposal that conservative members of Congress waved in the air throughout President Obama's speech before the joint session two weeks ago apparently inspired Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) to write an amendment gutting H.R. 3200.

Waxman characterized it as "an amendment that the Republicans want to use to derail the healthcare debate." Despite the fact that it was known beforehand that no vote would take place on the Rogers Amendment, Waxman allowed over an hour of floor time for its consideration.

The amendment is far-reaching, stripping out the public option and instead expanding existing state high-risk pools, and allowing businesses, organizations and religious institutions to combine purchasing power in the health insurance market. It also allows inter-state competition and requires entrants to prove their citizenship before getting access to insurance. There is no CBO score for the proposal, nor is there a concrete number of Americans expected to gain insurance from such a plan.

"It's Rogers-come-lately, OK?" said Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA). "You are Pete and Repeat: 'Let's just stick with the insurers! Lets just stick with the insurers!' Look at where we are. I think you're really on the wrong side of history."

Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) criticized Eshoo for dismissing the GOP plan because it wasn't available until now, saying it's "better late than never."

But it wasn't just the timing to which Democrats objected. Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD) criticized the high-risk pool idea as "a concession to the fact that you're going to just keep the same broken healthcare system in place."

Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) called the state competition idea "simply a race to the bottom," where insurance companies would relocate to the state with the fewest regulations. He also criticized the as-yet-unknown cost of the bill, saying that "if you're a fiscal conservative, you should be for the public option" because it saves the most taxpayer dollars.

If that's the case, it seems that fiscal conservancy -- along with the ideals of the compassionate conservative -- have become casualties of the Waterloo that is the healthcare debate.

BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

For an update on the mark-up in the Senate Finance Committee, see Tuesday's Bipartisanship Chokes on Itself During Baucus Bill Mark-Up. Dems Fight for Public Option While GOP Fights 'Washington Takeover.'

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