Rep. Courtney: Senate bill would be a 'tough sell' in the House

A key Democratic lawmaker on healthcare reform said late Tuesday that the House would have a hard time adopting the Senate bill verbatim should the alternative scenario arise.

Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) -- an influential labor ally on healthcare reform -- reaffirmed that some House Democrats still have substantial objections to the Senate bill.

Reports have floated that Democratic leaders may attempt to pass the provision through the House should Republican Scott Brown win tonight's Massachusetts special Senate election and give the GOP its 41st vote against healthcare.

"It's a tough sell for a lot of members," Courtney told reporters before a meeting of the Democratic caucus. "It's hard for me to image that they can convince the caucus to move on the Senate bill without some plan, an immediate, concurrent fix whether its a reconciliation bill or whatever."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday said that Democrats would continue merger talks and get a healthcare bill passed, but did not take the possibility of passing the Senate bill verbatim off the table. 

Brown has said he would filibuster the healthcare overhaul should he be elected Tuesday night, as several polls have indicated he may.

Democrats are reportedly discussing the possibility of passing the Senate bill on its own in order to curtail the negotiations and pass the bill before Brown could be seated.

Courtney said that several issues, such as Medicaid disparities between states and differences between the insurace exchanges, are acting as tie-ups in the negotiations. He also said labor figures were "pleased" with the compromise on the excise tax on high-cost plans struck between Democratic negotiators, the White House and labor.

But the Connecticut lawmaker said he was willing to give the leadership time to draft an actual proposal before definitively crafting his stance one way or another.

Still, Courtney held out hope that Democrat Martha Coakley would prevail over Brown on Tuesday despite some predictions that Brown will win, thus rendering the talks of accepting the Senate plan moot.

"[Coakley's field operations and the president's visit Sunday] has really caused some shift there at the end. So as far as I'm concerned, knock on wood, this issue is going to be moot tonight," he said.

"I'm not giving up hope on Massachusetts," he added.

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