Snowe falls away, leaving Senate Dems without GOP support on healthcare

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/58929-democrats-to-go-it-alone

Senate Democrats are going to have to move forward on healthcare
without a single Republican supporter after Sen. Olympia Snowe said
Tuesday she could not back the Finance Committee's bill.

Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) failed to win any Republican backer
despite weeks of intense negotiations behind closed doors to strike a
deal.

Snowe (Maine), who was one of three Republicans who backed the $787
billion economic stimulus package, was being lobbied heavily by the
White House, and some centrists view her refusal to strike a deal with
Baucus as troubling. But concerns about how the plan would be paid for
prompted her to back away in the hours before its release.

"I do have concerns and I'm not sure they can be addressed before he
issues [legislation] tomorrow," Snowe said.

Faced with the prospect of having to pass legislation without
Republican votes, Obama's chief political adviser David Axelrod met
with Senate and House Democrats on Tuesday to stress the importance of
party unity on healthcare reform — a message most directly aimed at
centrists who now are critical to its passage.

Democrats control 59 seats in the Senate. Without a single Republican
vote, they would be forced to advance healthcare using a budgetary
maneuver that requires only a simple majority.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday that Democrats
are prepared to use budget reconciliation as a last resort.

"We've always had a place at the table for Republicans. There's one
there today. We hope it bears fruit," he said. "If we can't get the 60
votes we need, then we'll have no alternative but to use
reconciliation."

Axelrod told senators that passing healthcare reform would give them a
boost in the 2010 midterm election, according to a person who attended
the meeting.

Axelrod also said that polls showed that public disapproval over
Democratic reform proposals — which swelled in June and July — leveled
off during the month of August, despite the publicity attracted by
conservative protests, said another source in the meeting.

Axelrod's speech seemed aimed at Democratic centrists who are
concerned about the failure to attract Snowe

In August, Obama and Baucus narrowed their focus to winning over Snowe
after it became clear that other Republican negotiators voiced sharp
criticisms of Democratic proposals during the congressional recess.

A Democratic official with knowledge of those talks said a persistent
sticking point has been Snowe's concerns over how Obama and Baucus
want to pay for the bill.

Baucus will introduce his healthcare legislation Wednesday and plans
to mark it up in the Finance Committee next week. Democrats hope they
can persuade Snowe to support the bill before the committee votes to
send it to the Senate floor. Baucus told reporters Tuesday that he
does not expect any Republicans to be on board prior to the markup.

"I think there will be Republican support when the bill is reported
out, at the very latest," he said. "It may be earlier there will be a
Republican or two that will announce support."

His effort to woo Republicans, however, has alienated liberals. At
least one prominent liberal on his committee, Sen. Jay Rockefeller
(D-W.Va.), plans to vote against Baucus's plan.

"There is no way in its present form that I will vote for it,"
Rockefeller said during a conference call.

Obama and Baucus have suggested paying for a big chunk of reform by
levying new taxes on high-cost insurance plans. Specifically, Baucus
has suggested a 35 percent excise tax on insurance plans that cost
single individuals more than $8,000 a year and cost families more than
$21,000.

Snowe's problem with that plan is that it could impose a heavy tax
burden on Maine, which has one of the highest average health insurance
premiums in the country. A July study by Harvard economist David
Cutler found that Maine, on average, has the fourth-most costly
insurance premiums in the country, trailing only Connecticut, Delaware
and New Hampshire.

Snowe said she is concerned about Baucus's plans to tax high-cost plans.

"I am, no question, because we are a high-cost state," said Snowe.

Baucus has set up the tax to phase in slowly for states such as Maine.
For the 17 states with the highest-cost premiums, Baucus's bill would
tax insurance plans at a higher threshold than for the rest of the
country.

For example, family plans in low-cost states such as Kentucky would be
taxed above $21,000 but Massachusetts families wouldn't see plans
under $25,000 taxed.

But this threshold would be pegged to the consumer price index, and
because healthcare prices are rising faster than inflation, many Maine
families could see unexpected taxes after a decade.

Snowe said she is still trying to understand whether the adjuster
provision Baucus set up would do enough to protect Maine families from
big tax increases on their health plans.

"That's something I'm still trying to discern," she said.

Snowe said she would like more time to review the legislation before
deciding to back it. But Democratic leaders have decided that GOP
negotiators have been given more than enough time.

Snowe said she is also concerned with whether Baucus's bill will do
enough to make health insurance more affordable. Snowe and Sen. Jeff
Bingaman (D-N.M.) have repeatedly pushed fellow negotiators on the
Finance panel to increase subsidies for low-income and uninsured
Americans.

Snowe has objected to Baucus's bill for requiring as many as 4 million
uninsured Americans to buy health plans without providing them with
significant federal subsidies.

Snowe said that lawmakers cannot expect people to comply with a
federal mandate to buy health insurance if affordable plans are not
available

"The affordability question is crucial," said Snowe. "It's a central
component, because at the end of the day people have high expectations
they will have access to affordable health insurance."