Majority leader: House will pass health bill

WASHINGTON (AP) — Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is predicting that the House will pass historic health care overhaul legislation Saturday to extend coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and ban insurance companies from turning people away.

The Maryland Democrat said Thursday that House leaders would have the 218 votes needed to pass the sweeping bill that President Barack Obama has made a defining goal of his young administration — presuming a couple of final issues are resolved. Hoyer acknowledged that the vote could be tight.

“I wouldn’t refer to it as a squeaker, but I think it’s going to be close,“ Hoyer said. “This is a huge undertaking.“

Hoyer said language on abortion and illegal immigrants was still being worked out but predicted those issues could be solved in time for Saturday’s scheduled debate and vote on the 10-year, $1.2 trillion legislation.

“We certainly have well over 218 people who say they want to vote for the bill,“ Hoyer said in an interview with wire service reporters.

“The trick is making sure they have a comfort level with the provisions they are particularly focused on to allow them to do so,“ he said. “So I think that’s what we’re in the final stages of trying to get to.“

Hoyer said the endorsement of the powerful seniors’ lobby AARP, expected to be formalized Thursday morning, was a significant boost.

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network also announced its support for the legislation Thursday, and the American Medical Association, which had endorsed an earlier version of the bill, scheduled a midday press call to weigh in.

Democratic leaders shrugged off Tuesday’s election losses in governor’s races in Virginia and New Jersey, focusing instead on their wins in two House races — a Democratic seat in northern California and one in New York that had long been held by the GOP. Both winners are being sworn in ahead of Saturday’s vote.

Action is slower on the other side of the Capitol, where senators are awaiting an analysis from the Congressional Budget Office on legislation written by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and others. The timeline there appears likely to spill into next year.

The AARP’s backing is a big boost for the House effort. Backing from the 40-million-member group proved a crucial stamp of approval when then-President George W. Bush pushed the Medicare prescription drug benefit through a closely divided Congress in 2003.

Officials with knowledge of the group’s decision disclosed it ahead of Thursday’s scheduled announcement, speaking on condition of anonymity because it was not yet official.

If the AARP’s clout doesn’t close the deal for House Democrats, Obama is expected to try to do it himself with a visit to Capitol Hill on Friday.

Republican leaders were scheduled to appear at a rally opposing the legislation outside the Capitol on Thursday, led by anti-big-government “tea party” activists.

With no GOP backing, Democrats will need overwhelming support from their own. An intraparty disagreement over how to prevent federal funds from being used to pay for abortion has not yet been entirely resolved, though Hoyer said that language being circulated by one anti-abortion Democrat, Rep. Brad Ellsworth of Indiana, seemed likely to be the basis for an agreement.

Ellsworth’s language aims to strengthen stipulations already in the bill against federal money being used to pay for abortions. It would still allow people to pay for abortion coverage with their own money.

That distinction doesn’t satisfy anti-abortion groups, which dismiss it as an accounting gimmick. They say federal subsidies for insurance coverage would not be clearly segregated from private funds used to pay for abortions.

The National Right to Life Committee issued a blistering press release Wednesday night calling Ellsworth’s proposal “a political fig leaf made out of cellophane.“

Ellsworth said that didn’t bother him: “I know what’s in my heart, I know what’s in my head and I think the big guy upstairs knows,“ he said.

House leaders are also still grappling with illegal immigration, specifically whether illegal immigrants — who would be barred from getting federal subsidies — should be able to purchase insurance coverage within new government “exchanges” using their own money.

The White House does not want this allowed, but some members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and other Democrats view that position as too extreme. Hispanic Caucus officials were scheduled to meet with Obama at the White House on Thursday.

The House bill would provide government subsidies beginning in 2013 to extend coverage to millions who now lack it. Self-employed people and small businesses could buy coverage through the new exchanges, either from a private insurer or a new government plan that would compete. All the plans sold through the exchange would have to follow basic consumer protection rules.

Seniors in traditional Medicare would get improved preventive benefits. Also, the prescription coverage gap known as the “doughnut hole” would be gradually closed. However, seniors signed up for private insurance plans through Medicare could lose some benefits.

In addition to raising money by cutting payments to hospitals and other medical providers, the House bill boosts taxes on upper-income earners.

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Associated Press writers David Espo and Alan Fram contributed to this report.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.