House Democrats to Follow Lead of Senate Dems on Health Care

By Sarrah Martin-Howell

WASHINGTON–In the wake of the Senate Health Committee’s approval–along strictly partisan lines–of President Obama’s massive program to reform the country’s health care system, House Democrats seemed poised to follow suit on Thursday. However, the ultimate fate of health care reform remains very much in doubt.

Likely to move health care reform legislation forward in the House were votes by three House committees–Education, Labor, and Ways and Means–with jurisdiction over the bill. The $1.5 trillion program proposed by Obama is likely to handily pass muster in all three committee votes but could conceivably stumble in a vote in the Energy and Commerce Committee, where a number of fiscally conservative Democrats have raised objections to the massive spending called for in the legislation.

For his part, Obama was doing all he could to gather public support for the legislation, including a round of interviews with media representatives who report on health care and medicine and with a Rose Garden statement that called for decisive action to reform the country’s health care system. The president also planned Thursday meetings with two Republican senators he is hoping can be persuaded to support his vision of health care reform.

Wednesday’s approval of the legislation in the Senate Health Committee–by a vote of 13 to 10–found no Republican support but managed to get through on the strength of the committee’s Democratic majority.

Clouding future prospects for health care reform are conflicting strategies for getting the legislation approved. Some liberal Democrats are determined to push reform through with or without Republican support, while others are anxious to persuade at least some Republican legislators to join the cause, giving the final effort the stamp of bipartisanship.

Ultimately the future of health care reform may be decided by whether the Democratic majority in Congress can persuade their more fiscally conservative colleagues to join them to ensure passage. This is by no means a certainty, as many of these more conservative, or “Blue Dog,” Democrats have been elected in their home states by pledging to keep federal spending levels under control.