US Senator Reid's health care reform compromise: 'No deal gamesmanship? Still a bad deal'

As debate continued in the US Senate of health care reform, there was some apparent progress last night with Democrats agreeing a compromise, by dropping the demand for a wide-ranging government-run health insurance system. Instead, they are considering a national health scheme operated by private insurers and allowing American citizens aged over 55 years to buy the government's Medicare insurance plan for seniors.

But even this came in for criticism, with the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) expressing disdain at what it described as 'last evening's theatrical announcement' by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Democrat, Nevada) that five Democratic moderates and five Democratic liberals in the Senate had come to some sort of behind-closed-doors breakthrough moment on the $898 billion Senate health care bill. 'As usual, no pertinent details were offered by Leader Reid, only a vague wave of the imperial hand and an assurance that the group had moved the bill substantially down the road. These new proposals have been sent to the Congressional Budget Office for scoring,' said the CCAGW.

News reports indicate that the agreement reached by this 10-member Democratic rump group has eliminated the government-run health care option, one of the most contentious aspects of the deliberations. Instead, Democrats now favor expansions of both Medicare and Medicaid, both government-run health care programs, as well as an expansion of the role of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

According to the publication Politico, 'The Democrats are considering including a 'trigger' that would allow a public plan to kick in - but only in the event that private insurers didn't step up and offer policies for the new national health insurance plan, which seemed unlikely.' The OPM's new mission would presumably be to certify that the private insurance companies' plans meet federal guidelines on what constitutes a qualified health insurance plan.

The agreement apparently also envisions an expansion of Medicare benefits to those between the ages of 55 to 64, which could mean as many as 3 million new people added to the Medicare rolls at a time when the program is already on a glide path to insolvency. Senator Jay Rockefeller (Democrat, West Virginia) told NPR: 'I like Medicare buy in a whole lot. I've been dreaming about that since 2001.' Earlier discussions of increasing income eligibility for Medicaid to 150% of poverty ran into resistance from state governors, the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, and other members of Congress.

'When a senator says he's been dreaming about a huge increase in Medicare enrollment, that is a nightmare for taxpayers,' said CCAGW president Tom Schatz, 'Medicare will be broke in eight years; there is $47 billion in improper payments in the program; yet the 'compromise' is to expand eligibility. There is no money to pay for this new entitlement. Whatever they concoct as a formula will result in more money coming out of the paychecks of younger workers, adding to their economic woes,' he warned.

Senator Reid has high hopes of getting is bill passed before the Christmas break for US President Barack Obama to sign, However, there is still the question of reconciling this with the House of Representatives' version of legislation, at which time both chambers would have to vote on whatever compromise is achieved.