North Dakota Senator Conrad sees 'the outline of a compromise' on health care bill

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said Wednesday that he “can see the outline of a compromise” on health care reform that could lead to legislation — including a public option — reaching the president’s desk, possibly by the end of the year.

The compromise bill melding House and Senate versions likely would be “based largely on the Senate Finance (Committee) bill” that he helped fashion, he said, including a not-for-profit cooperative alternative to private health insurance and a public option not linked to Medicare levels of reimbursement.

“I’ve always believed the bill that came out of (Senate) Finance had the best chance of getting adopted,” he said, “because it has the greatest chance of securing 60 votes,” the number Democrats need to bring it to the floor and pass it over a Republican filibuster attempt.

“The reasons for that are that not only is it fully paid for in 10 years, but it also reduces the deficit in the second 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office,” Conrad said.

“It also does a good job of dealing with the issues involving those people who are here illegally. It doehere illegally. It does not allow those here illegally assistance. And it does not fund abortion … no taxpayer funding for abortion.

“That leaves the issue of public option,” he said, a feature that liberal Democrats have insisted must be part of reform but virtually all Republicans — plus some conservative Democrats — have countered would be a deal-breaker.

PUBLIC OPTION SNAG

Conrad, one of six Finance Committee senators assigned to draft a bill that could pass the Senate, hopefully with some Republican support, proposed a network of regional not-for-profit cooperatives as an alternative to a government-run public option.

While he has not seen the bill that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to bring to the floor next week, Conrad said he expects it to provide an alternative to private insurance through the cooperative model as well as “leave open the possibility of public option that is not tied to Medicare reimbursement rates.”

“That’s been the big problem with public option as pushed by the House,” he said. Now the House, which passed its bill late last week, “has backed off that approach, and Harry Reid in his approach is going to drop the link to Medicare,” as he understands the leader’s plans. “So I think you can begin to see the outlines of a compromise.

“I think public option will be included as an alternative (in the final bill), but not tied to Medicare levels of reimbursement. And there will be a not-for-profit alternative, and that will be a cooperative model.”

Conrad has opposed a public option both because he didn’t see it gaining enough votes for passage in the Senate and because initial proposals tied benefit payments to existing Medicare reimbursement rates, which he said are based on formulas that unfairly penalize states such as North Dakota. Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., offered the same explanation for his vote against the House bill in committee. Pomeroy voted for the bill when it reached the floor because, he said, the Medicare link was gone.

DONE THIS YEAR?

Asked about a likely timetable for final passage of health care reform legislation, Conrad said “weeks.”

“The bill probably will come to the floor next week in the Senate, but then we’ll have the Thanksgiving break,” he said. “I think it will be on the floor close to Christmas.

“It could get done this year, the whole thing, but it seems to me it’ll be hard to get wrapped up this year. It seems to me all the stars will have to align for that to happen.”

Conrad spoke from Washington, D.C., shortly before leaving for North Dakota to participate in Veterans Day events in Fargo and Jamestown. He is scheduled to be in Langdon, Park River, Michigan, New Rockford, Cooperstown and Finley this week, as well, before attending a ceremony installing a new commander at Grand Forks Air Force Base on Friday.

He said he expects to get advice on health care reform as he makes his way around the state.

“People talk to me whatever the venue is,” he said. “People talk about whatever’s on their minds, and health care … is very much on their minds.

“There is a lot of concern. There also is a tremendous amount of misinformation. The blog world especially has really fostered a lot of misinformation about what’s in these bills — interestingly, from both the left and the right.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen so much misinformation about a major issue, and also so little focus on the major issues.”

‘TRANSFORMATIONAL’

Conrad said the furor over public option misses “probably the most transformational part of what we’re considering,” substantive reforms that he said would provide incentives for medical personnel to share administrative and diagnostic costs.

Doctors could be “using electronic medical records so the left hand knows what the right hand is doing — what tests (a patient has) had, what the results of tests were,” he said.

The reform legislation also anticipates “moving from paying for procedures to paying for quality outcomes,” Conrad said.

“Almost all the experts have said those changes are the most significant parts of reforming health care, but they have received almost no attention in the national debate. I’m very concerned about it. It’s a tremendous disservice to the country, and the national media is complicit in that” by focusing on the fight over public option and other issues.

“Especially the cable networks have missed the larger story,” Conrad said. “It makes you wonder how you have a serious debate on an issue in this country and the people have the chance to get the straight story.”

The public relations battle continued Wednesday, as NDPeople.org, a coalition of advocates for public option, assailed Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota for mailing letters to businesses that were “full of inaccuracies, exaggerations and sleights of hand intended to protect the Blues’ dominant lock on health insurance in the state.”

Also Wednesday, MoveOn.org released a new TV ad to keep pressure on Conrad to see that the Senate bill includes a public option and gets “an up or down vote” on the Senate floor.

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