Obama ready to scale back healthcare bill

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama and House Democratic lawmakers signaled a willingness to scale back legislation overhauling the US healthcare system after the party suffered a defeat in a key Senate race. “I would advise that we try to move quickly to coalesce around those elements in the package that people agree on,” Obama said in an interview with ABC News broadcast last night. House majority leader Steny Hoyer backed that suggestion.

“That’s a reasonable alternative,” said the Maryland Democrat. Lawmakers must focus on making insurance affordable for Americans, helping small businesses provide coverage, Hoyer said. “You could do it in an individual new bill,” he said.

Democrats’ consideration of a pared-down bill is a swift reversal after more than eight months of efforts by House and Senate lawmakers to push through landmark legislation likely to cost as much as $900 billion over a decade.

It comes after Republican Scott Brown’s January 19 victory in Massachusetts deprived Democrats of their supermajority of 60 votes in the Senate. That imperiled the health plan because Brown’s party now has enough votes to block any legislation. The Obama administration will push to revive the medical- system overhaul after giving lawmakers a couple of days to digest the results of the Republican upset victory, an administration official said yesterday. The administration is split over how to move forward, with some advocating giving Congress direction and others favoring a more hands-off approach, said the official, who requested anonymity.

The elements of the bill Obama would like to see include new insurance industry rules, such as the elimination of lifetime caps on insurance plans and a ban on insurers denying people coverage because of pre-existing medical conditions, the official said.