Baucus to release bill on Wednesday

The Senate Finance Committee will now unveil its long-awaited healthcare reform bill on Wednesday, according to its chairman.

The $880 billion bill, which has been the subject of intense negotiations, would be the last piece of legislation introduced by one of Congress’s healthcare committees. It could wind up serving as the vehicle most likely to attract the support of crucial centrist Democrats in the House and Senate — as well as a handful of Republicans.

“We’re on track to release the mark this week and have the markup next week,” Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said Monday.

Baucus initially said the chairman’s mark could be released Tuesday before saying later on Monday that it would be delayed until Wednesday.

He said the Senators needed more time to work out details with state governors on Medicaid funding, among other issues.

In July, Baucus set Sept. 15 as the deadline for agreeing to a deal and announced a week ago that he would introduce his draft legislation at some point this week, followed by committee action next week.

In the meantime, bipartisan negotiations between Baucus, committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Democratic Sens. Jeff Bingaman (N.M.) and Kent Conrad (N.D.) and Republican Sens. Mike Enzi (Wyo.) and Olympia Snowe (Maine) will continue. “I do believe that, in the end, we’ll have significant bipartisan support,” Baucus said.

The Gang of Six continues to try to hash out several outstanding issues, such as how the federal and state governments will share the cost of enrolling additional Medicaid beneficiaries; how to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving benefits under healthcare reform; how to ensure that federal money is not used to finance abortion services; and how to implement state-based mechanisms to limit medical malpractice lawsuits.

Baucus plans to meet with Democrats on the Finance Committee on Monday afternoon to present a status update on the talks and solicit feedback on the bill due later this week. Liberals on the panel, most notably Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), have expressed strong dissatisfaction with the draft proposal Baucus unveiled last week.

The Gang of Six met Monday morning to kick off the final stages of its talks, which have been going on for months — much to the consternation of impatient Democrats worried that Baucus is making too many concessions to win GOP support, chiefly because of his decision to omit from his bill the creation of a government-run public option health insurance program that would compete with private companies.

But with continued resistance among centrist Democrats in both chambers to the public option, as well as concerns within the same contingent about the cost of healthcare reform and issues such as whether the bill would cover illegal immigrants or pay for abortion services, Baucus has positioned his measure as the bill most likely to attract broad support.

President Barack Obama indicated during his address to a joint session of Congress last week that he could support a healthcare reform package consistent with the Finance Committee group’s deliberations, even if the bill leaves out the public option.

Baucus has adopted Conrad’s proposal to instead create federally chartered, not-for-profit, member-owned healthcare cooperatives. Snowe favors establishing a “trigger” that would activate a public option only if private insurers fail to enroll the uninsured under reform. Obama has also expressed openness to this proposal, but Baucus has said the idea has never been discussed among the Gang of Six.

Before Congress left for its August recess, the House Education and Labor, Energy and Commerce, and Ways and Means committees each marked up more liberal bills that included a public option.

The House Democratic leadership will begin the process of melding those bills this week. The House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, composed of committee chairmen and members of the leadership, is holding a public forum on healthcare reform Tuesday.

The Energy and Commerce Committee is slated to meet this week for a session to put the finishing touches on its bill, which passed the committee in July based on a deal struck with centrist Blue Dog Democrats on the panel. That deal, however, may not hold because of protests from liberals and because Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), the lead negotiator for the Blue Dogs, subsequently disavowed any healthcare reform bill that includes a public option.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee also approved its version of the bill before the recess.

This story was updated at 5:58.