OLYMPIA — Washington’s congressional delegation returns to work this week, with summer’s heated town halls on health care behind them and a fall of fierce political debate ahead.
No longer are majority Democrats in Congress and President Barack Obama setting a timeline for acting on health care legislation.
They’ve been slowed by a sharp divide in the public, visible when 2,500 people showed up at Everett Memorial Stadium for the forum hosted by Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash. Emotions ran just as high when 1,200 people filled the Edmonds-Woodway High School gymnasium a few days ago to hear from Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash.
They’ve also been bogged down because Democrats differ amongst themselves and are at sharp odds with Republicans who feel little compulsion to support their rivals’ offerings.
Nonetheless, Democratic lawmakers from Washington are committed to coming up with something.
“If we do nothing it will cost more,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., told Everett business leaders last month. “The status quo is the most expensive option.”
On Wednesday, President Barack Obama is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress to try and infuse renewed purpose in the pursuit of what is one of his most important domestic policy priorities.
Right now, three different health care bills are wending through the House of Representatives and two others in the Senate. That adds up to a lot of words getting molded together into a single piece of legislation.
When asked, Inslee, Larsen, Murray and Sen. Maria Cantwell say they have some items they’d like to see in the final bill. Here a few they cited:
Medicare
All four want a provision included that will end a history of Washington state doctors and hospitals receiving lower reimbursement payments for treating Medicare patients than their counterparts in many other states.
Inslee helped draft an amendment for one of the House bills while Cantwell has introduced legislation in the Senate with this goal in mind.
The House proposal requires a study be done of the inequities. Inslee and Larsen said they expect the results will lead to needed changes.
Public option
This is one of the most heated elements of the health care debate.
Inslee, Murray and Cantwell would like to see the final product have a government-backed health insurance plan — the so-called public option with the legislation.
They consider it a fundamental means of spurring competition in the health insurance market to hold down prices of policies for consumers.
“I support a public option that is accountable to the people and available nationwide,” Cantwell writes on her legislative Web site.
“If such an option is not included in draft legislation, I will work to add one to any health reform bill before the Finance Committee or on the floor of the U.S. Senate,” she writes.
Larsen’s endorsement is a bit more tenuous. Congress should not try to create a health insurance plan for everyone, he said. Instead it should be trying to guarantee there is some type of a health insurance plan available for everyone to consider choosing.
Whether it is publicly, privately or cooperatively administered is less important, he said, than the fact that something is available.
All four agreed that anyone who has insurance and doctors they like should be able to keep them.
Mandated coverage
This is one of the more tricky pieces of the puzzle.
The four legislators said they want provisions that prevent insurers from discriminating against applicants because of their age, gender or pre-existing conditions such as diabetes or cancer. They also want to prohibit private insurers from rescinding or canceling a policy based on illness.
Larsen pointed out if Congress moves to impose such rules it appears it must also include a mandate that every person in the country have insurance coverage — which is a controversial idea.
It’s an economic issue for the insurers, he said. Their costs will rise so if Congress requires everyone be insured, it increases the number of potential customers for companies to spread their costs.
“You can’t have one idea without the other,” he said.
Odds and ends
Inslee and Larsen endorsed spending more money on efforts to ferret out waste and fraud from programs including Medicare. A small investment now could save more later, they said.
Cantwell is looking for language giving states incentives to help more seniors receive long term care at home or in community based settings rather than in more costly nursing homes.
Inslee is also pushing for federal subsidies for families at or below 400 percent of the federal poverty level.
Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
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