House to unveil health bill Thursday

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By Jennifer Haberkorn

House Democrats plan to release their health care reform bill Thursday after reaching agreement within their party on how to structure the government-run insurance program.

A ceremony is planned for outside the Capitol to release the legislation, which would dramatically alter the nation's health care system.

The House and Senate reform bills would create a national health insurance program, but the Senate plan would allow states to "opt out" of the program. Both chambers could begin debate on their bills as soon as late next week.

It addition to establishing the public insurance plan, the bill would require nearly all Americans to purchase insurance, expand the Medicaid program and impose a new tax on wealthy Americans.

"I'm pretty confident that we have the right pieces in place," said Rep. George Miller, California Democrat and chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, which helped draft the legislation. "I'm very happy with the overall bill."

The House proposal is expected to come with a cost estimate that likely will be carefully scrutinized by conservative Democrats who worry the plan would add to the deficit.

The bill's release ends weeks in which leaders tried to bridge party divisions over details of the plan. The bill's public plan would reimburse doctors at rates negotiated between the Department of Health and Human Services and providers. It's not the "robust" plan - which would have reimbursed doctors at Medicare plus 5 percent rates - that liberal Democrats favored. The robust plan would save money but didn't have enough support, particularly from rural-state members concerned that their regions wouldn't be reimbursed fairly.

House leaders said they expected to have the votes to pass the bill, and Democrats said they were pleased they got to this point.

"I'm really happy that we're going to be putting out a bill tomorrow," Rep. Peter Welch of Vermont said Wednesday.

House leaders are releasing the bill with the understanding that the most divisive issues have been resolved and changes could be made to the bill later. Concerns over cost, abortion and immigration still threaten to derail the bill.

Rep. Marion Berry, Arkansas Democrat, said late Wednesday that he wasn't sure whether he was prepared to support the bill over concern about cost.

"I don't think we're getting near enough out of the drug companies and the insurance companies," he said. "If they're not squealing to the high heavens, we've not done enough."

Republicans are expected to try to block the reform bill over concern that it would raise insurance premiums and allow government too large a role in health care decisions.

"We have no way of knowing what will be in the final version of this bill, because it's being written in secret as we speak," House Minority Leader John A. Boehner said Wednesday. "The original House-passed bill had $162 billion worth of cuts to Medicare Advantage. I have nearly 27,000 Medicare Advantage enrollees in my congressional district. And according to the Congressional Budget Office, some 80 percent of them would lose their benefits, according to their analysis."

In the Senate, leaders continued to try to pull together 60 votes on their bill. Majority Leader Harry Reid said Monday that his plan would also create a public option but hasn't released many other details.