The Great Democrat Divide Over Health Care

The recent boost for Baucus and the passing of his bill are hardly the game changing events people have made it out to be. There are two huge stumbling blocks in the way, in the first place the plan considers the public option dead on arrival. Bowing to political reality, for all its flaws the Baucus plan is less insane then the House version and lacks a public option. This in turn drives the left up the wall as health care exchanges simply don't cut it with them. Just as big an impediment is the Baucus tax on "Cadillac plans" , which is a back door tax on employee benefits. Already the House Democrats have been up in arms over the issue and Unions have pushed back hard as well. These aren't small issues, the Unions and the middle class will get hammered by the tax and the left has been desperate for its socialized health care for some time now. Until these issues are settled, don't expect anything to happen anytime soon:

Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Senate Finance Committee’s approval of health-care legislation after months of struggling to reach an agreement sets the stage for an even bigger battle. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid now has to meld the $829 billion legislation with a measure passed by the Senate health committee in July. While both proposals aim to curb medical costs and cover tens of millions of uninsured Americans, their different paths to the goal have divided Democrats and unsettled some of the party’s main supporters.

Lawmakers are grappling with a host of issues -- whether to create a government-run insurance program, whether to require that employers cover workers and how to pay for all the changes. Even as Democrats stuck together in yesterday’s 14-9 panel vote and won the support of Republican Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, they hardened their stances.

“The bill before us still falls short of what people need and what people expect,” said Senator Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat who supports a government insurance entity, or public option, to compete with private insurers such as Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc.

The public option is a fault line, with a majority of House Democrats and senators including Rockefeller and New York’s Chuck Schumer lined up on one side and Democrats from Republican-leaning states, such as Senators Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Kent Conrad of North Dakota, on the other.

Schumer yesterday said the option must be in final legislation, after the finance committee voted against it. Conrad said at least one version of the plan is a “nonstarter” because his state’s hospitals would go bankrupt.

Unions Weigh In

The United Auto Workers and 26 other unions will publish a newspaper advertisement today saying labor will oppose the legislation unless lawmakers include a public option, among other changes, before a vote by the full Senate.House Democrats and Senate Democrats led by John Kerry of Massachusetts, are lining up to support another proposal that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus knocked down: a requirement that employers cover workers.

While Reid tries to navigate the conflicting demands from his party, he may not have much room to change the finance panel proposal. Lincoln warned that her support wouldn’t extend to a final bill that “strays too far.” And Snowe was measured in backing the legislation, President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority.

Of course Obama could settle this by laying out what he supports in a clear manner , but considering his MO has been to sit it out and let others write the legislation, don't count on that happening.