Toughest test yet for health-care overhaul

WASHINGTON — Keep going. You don't have to fix all of it now. Just please don't let it stall.

That's the essence of the message that Senate Democratic leaders have for their Finance Committee senators, who plan to start voting Tuesday on a remake of the nation's health-care system.

Democrats on the pivotal committee are disappointed with the bill from the chairman, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. Republicans see a chance to deliver a stunning blow to President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.

The stakes are so high because this isn't just another committee.

The 23-member panel is a microcosm of the Senate, the narrow gate through which legislation to cover the uninsured and try to control medical costs has to pass. If the committee can't produce, then the ability of Obama and the Democrats to pass a bill this year will be seriously questioned.

"If it can't get through the Finance Committee, the mountain that has to be climbed is a much higher mountain, and I don't know whether they'll have the ability to climb that mountain," said Christine Ferguson, a Senate GOP health aide during the Bill Clinton-era health-care debate. Now a George Washington University professor, Ferguson was part of an effort to find a bipartisan deal.

Baucus, an optimist by nature, says he has the votes. "Oh, yeah — no doubt," he says.

But last week the chairman stood alone as he explained and defended his 10-year, $856-billion plan.

No Democrats joined him in front of the media — not even Sens. Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, who spent months working with Baucus trying to find a compromise both political parties could support.

The second-ranking committee Democrat, Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, promptly announced he couldn't vote for the bill without major changes. Senators have readied more than 560 amendments.

The Baucus plan would require all Americans to carry health insurance or pay a stiff fine. It would provide subsidies to many middle-class households and expand government health programs for the poor. Insurers could not deny coverage based on someone's personal health history.

The plan would be paid for with cuts in Medicare and Medicaid spending, as well as a heavy tax on high-cost health insurance plans. Baucus would not create a government plan to compete with private insurers. And workers at larger companies that offer coverage wouldn't see big changes.