Lieberman Suggests Health Care Reform May Have to Wait
Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut on Sunday urged the Obama administration to consider postponing overhauling the health care system and instead work on smaller chunks of the issue until the economy improves.
"I'm afraid we've got to think about putting a lot of that off until the economy's out of recession," Mr. Lieberman said on CNN's "State of the Union." "There's no reason we have to do it all now, but we do have to get started. And I think the place to start is cost health delivery reform and insurance market reforms."
Mr. Lieberman's comments could further complicate Democratic efforts to get a health care overhaul passed in Congress. They had been depending on the independent senator to support their efforts, even though he often aligns with Republicans.
In the Senate, 60 votes would be needed to overcome any Republican filibuster, and the Democrats control 60 votes, including those of two independents. However, Senators Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia have been ill. On top of that, moderate Democrats have signaled that they might not support every proposal.
Mr. Lieberman credited Mr. Obama for taking on the heath care issue, but noted that "he took it on at a very difficult time that was not of his making." The senator said he believed health care reform debate has intensified partly because of the general nervousness over the economy.
Also Sunday, Senator John McCain said that one way for Democrats and Republicans to reach a compromise would be for Mr. Obama to abandon a government-run insurance program for the nation's 49 million uninsured.
Interviewed on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" Mr. McCain, the Arizona Republican and 2008 presidential candidate, said that a public plan would cause many Americans to lose their private health insurance. Although he was not asked to explain, opponents of a government-run plan have previously warned that many employers would scuttle private insurance for their workers if such a program were enacted.
"Certainly if you have it, you shouldn't have to lose it," Mr. McCain said of private insurance. "But under the president's plan, you would have to lose it in my view because of the government option. I believe that one of the fundamentals for any agreement would be that the president abandon the government option."
Last week, Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, said that a government-run plan was not essential to an overhaul, a concession to United States senators who say such a plan could not win the backing of a majority of the crucial Senate Finance Committee. The focus shifted to discussion of nonprofit medical co-operatives, which are popular in some Midwestern states and more palatable to conservatives. But outrage by liberals supporting a government plan has made the fate of that provision unclear.
Senator Charles E. Schumer, the New York Democrat and a member of the Finance committee, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that President Obama "believes strongly in a public option."
He argued that a government plan was imperative because it would introduce competition in the industry. In 40 of the 50 states, he said, as few as two companies rule the private health insurance market. A government program, he said, "doesn't have to make a profit or merchandise as much, so its costs are probably 20 percent lower."
But on the same show, Senator Orrin G. Hatch, the Utah Republican and a member of the same finance panel, predicted that "tens of millions of people will go into the government plan" against their will. And, he added, the problem with government plans like Medicare is they are not sufficiently financed. Medicare, he said, will go bankrupt within 10 years.
"The costs of the government plan will be astronomical," he said. "Keep in mind, in Medicare they pay doctors 20 percent less, they pay hospitals 30 percent less. Guess where those costs are transferred? They're transferred to the people who have private health insurance, and the average private health insurance policy goes up about $1,800 a year just to pay for what the government fails to pay for in their current government plan."