WASHINGTON - Americans can't take weekends off from worrying about health care and the Senate shouldn't either, Majority Leader Harry Reid said Saturday as he opened a rare weekend session to debate President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.
With Democrats preparing to vote on an amendment targeting tax breaks for insurance executives' pay, Reid lashed out at "greedy health insurance companies" that he said make profits by neglecting consumers' health needs.
Reid called the weekend session as he races the clock to complete action on the 2,000-page remake of the U.S. health care system by Christmas. With both sides jockeying for political advantage amid raging partisan debate, Democratic senators used their weekend work to cite their commitment to Obama's top domestic policy priority.
Reid's office announced that Obama would make a personal pitch Sunday during a visit to the Capitol, when he is expected to speak to Democratic senators during a caucus meeting.
Republicans on Saturday were showcasing the bill's cuts to Medicare, seeking to undermine support for the legislation among seniors and others. Medicare is the government-run program that provides health coverage to the elderly.
An amendment to be offered by Sen. Mike Johanns of Nebraska would eliminate $42 billion in cuts in Medicare payments to home health agencies over the next decade. It's the third in a series of Republican amendments highlighting the legislation's more than $400 billion in cuts to projected Medicare payments for private insurance companies, hospitals and other providers. Democrats defeated the first two but Republicans want them to continue casting politically risky votes.
The nearly $1 trillion legislation would provide insurance coverage to more than 30 million more people over the next decade with a new requirement for nearly everyone to purchase insurance. New insurance purchasing marketplaces would be set up, lower-income people would get subsidies, the federal-state Medicaid program for the poor would be expanded and unpopular insurance company practices such as yanking coverage when someone gets sick would be banned.
Tens of millions of Americans lack health insurance or are underinsured, either because their employers do not provide it or they are out of work. The United States is the only developed industrialized nation that does not have a comprehensive national health care plan.
The biggest problem for Reid: getting agreement among his own Democrats on the divisive issues of abortion and a government insurance plan, or public option, to compete against the private market.
He needs all 60 members of his caucus to agree in order to overcome Republicans' delaying tactics, but several moderates are balking.
"Abortion and public option are really the major obstacles at this point," said the No. 2 Senate Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois.
Talks to find common ground on those issues are happening behind the scenes, but coloring the public action. Democratic leaders were giving the spotlight Saturday to Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas -- a key moderate with a difficult re-election next year -- to propose an amendment that would limit insurance industry executives' tax deductible salaries to the same amount the U.S. president makes -- currently $400,000.
The bill already includes a limit of $500,000 added by Lincoln earlier, so the new amendment doesn't represent a major change, though it does add a provision directing the expected $650 million in revenue to the Medicare trust fund.
It also gives Lincoln something to brag about as her poll numbers sag back home.
Lincoln is among a few senators whose votes are uncertain but necessary for Reid. She reiterated her opposition Thursday to the government-run insurance plan in the bill, and despite numerous talks among liberals and moderates to find a compromise, Lincoln said she hadn't seen anything she could support yet.
Republicans again devoted their Saturday radio address to criticizing the legislation over a topic debated earlier -- preventive care for women. That became an issue after a government advisory panel recommended against regular mammograms for women in their 40s. One of the votes the Senate cast this week was to safeguard coverage of mammograms.
Carly Fiorina, a former Hewlett-Packard Co. chief executive, breast cancer survivor and a Republican candidate running for the Senate seat from California now held by Democrat Barbara Boxer, delivered the address. She said that the recommendation on mammograms was an early taste of what could happen under the Democrats' plan.
"We wonder if we are heading down a path where the federal government will at first suggest and then mandate new standards for prevention and treatment," Fiorina said. "Do we really want government bureaucrats rather than doctors dictating how we prevent and treat something like breast cancer?"
Republicans planned to use the sixth day of debate on the bill to offer the third in a series of amendments highlighting the legislation's more than $400 billion in cuts in projected Medicare spending to private insurance companies, hospitals and other providers.
The House of Representatives has already passed its version of health care reform legislation. Assuming the Senate passes some version of health care overhaul, a House-Senate conference committee would try to resolve the differences. Then both chambers would vote on the final product and, if they approve it, send it to Obama's desk for signing.
