Lawmakers voice views on Democrats' bill

With the U.S. House expected to vote Saturday on the most significant health care overhaul in more than a generation, one South Hampton Roads congressman is strongly for it, another is vehemently opposed and a third is on the fence.

U.S. Rep. Glenn Nye, a Norfolk Democrat, said Thursday that his party leaders don't have his vote yet on a $1.2 trillion health care bill, but that he's not a lost cause.

"I still need to be convinced that the bill deals with the underlying problem of the growing cost of health care," Nye said in a telephone interview.

The legislation, HR3962, would require all Americans to have health insurance, would require most employers to offer coverage and would include a government option plan that could compete with for-profit health insurance providers. It would provide coverage to tens of millions who do not have insurance and cannot afford it.

U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, a Democrat from Newport News, has supported the legislation and is particularly passionate about including a government option plan. Scott argues that without this public option, there will be no true competition to address the skyrocketing cost of health care coverage.

Scott said that he would like the bill to offer more coverage for children but that it's important to do something now. "Even though there are some things in the bill you don't like, it makes sense to keep it moving forward," he said.

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told The Associated Press that leaders expect to have the 218 votes needed for passage.

While Democrats hold 258 of the 435 House seats, Hoyer acknowledged the vote could be tight.

The Democrats' bill was endorsed Thursday by the American Medical Association and AARP, whose membership includes people over 50 years old.

"We are closer to passing this reform than ever before," President Barack Obama said of the endorsements in a news briefing. "And now that the doctors and medical professionals of America are standing with us, now that the organizations charged with looking out for the interests of seniors are standing with us, we are even closer."

To help spur support, Obama is visiting the Capitol today to talk privately with House Democrats.

The Democrats propose to pay for the package with a new tax on the incomes of families that take in more than $1 million a year and individuals with incomes larger than $500,000. The bill also would redirect about $426 billion used for some Medicaid and Medicare programs.

Nye said some of the Medicaid changes concern him. For example, the House bill proposes cutting billions of dollars in supplemental Medicaid payments to hospitals that serve large numbers of poor and uninsured patients.

Among those that would lose funding is Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in Norfolk. Even with health care reform, Nye said, hospital officials told him they would still need the extra payments to treat those children.

"I'm working to see if there's a way around that," he said. "I would also need to be convinced that the bill would bring down the cost for small business."

Nye said he's not done studying the 2,000-page bill, which was released to legislators on Friday. Among his broader concerns, he said, is that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office warns that the House bill "doesn't have the elements to significantly reduce the cost of health care."

Republicans, who are a minority in the House, have offered their own plan, which would cost significantly less - $61 billion - but does not require everyone to have insurance and does not require most employers to offer coverage. The GOP plan would prod states to promote reform by offering financial incentives and would put caps on malpractice awards. It also would allow small businesses to pool their resources when buying insurance plans.

U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes, a Republican from Chesapeake who has stridently opposed the Democrats' health care plans, warned that it would be too expensive and wipe out private health insurance. He acknowledged that the GOP alternative doesn't do everything he would like.

"The American people really don't expect us to change every aspect of the health care system with one fell swoop," Forbes said. "They're worried about us trying to do that."