Letter from Washington:

Time for health care, not much else

Negotiations have reached the stage where Harry Reid, administration top guns are deeply involved

Charles Dharapak / ASSOCIATED PRESS

White House staff chief Rahm Emanuel, second from right, meets Wednesday with, from left, Phil Schiliro, White House legislative affairs director; Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid; Senate Banking Committee chief Christopher Dodd; and Nancy-Ann DeParle, head of the White House Health Reform Office.

By Lisa Mascaro (contact)

Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Shelley Berkley

Washington — To understand just how all-consuming the health care debate is on Capitol Hill, consider this: Every day the House was in session last week, Democrats scheduled party-wide caucus meetings with all 256 members to discuss the issue.

When one of the meetings was canceled, another meeting of Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee took its place.

“We’re caucusing every five minutes,” sighed an exasperated Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley.

The long, hot summer of the health care debate has continued into the chilly fall. The first winter rainstorm hit the capital last week, and the race is on to see whether snow or floor votes on health care arrive first.

Hopes have been all but dashed for October floor action in the House and Senate on the health care bills that so far have been heard by five committees and are being melded into separate versions in each chamber.

For every milestone that is reached (passage last week of a bill by the Senate Finance Committee, the final panel to vote) another looms (what would a public option look like?).

As one pol quipped recently, it’s no wonder health care reform has never been accomplished despite repeated attempts over the past 50 years.

Not that there is not other news happening in Washington.

A few weeks ago, several Nevadans made the trip to the capital to discuss energy policy with their lawmakers in advance of a hoped-for debate on a climate change bill. They were renewable energy businessmen and environmentalists with passion for a bill that would set limits on global warming-causing pollutants.

We met early one morning at a breakfast spot near their hotel and a lively conversation ensued. Like so many other energy advocates, they are pressing for legislative action in time for the international climate change conference in December in Copenhagen.

Their voices were hard to hear above the health care debate.

To show the historic proportions health care reform has taken — it is constantly said that no other attempt has gone as far as this one, having passed those five committees — consider this moment last week:

On Wednesday afternoon, as senators and White House officials met for the inaugural negotiation on a final bill to bring to the floor, the occasion was considered important enough to allow a camera crew and lone reporter in to briefly document the occasion.

Not much happened in those fleeting seconds: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sat at the head of the table, flanked by Democratic committee chairmen, Sen. Max Baucus of Montana and Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, and White House officials including Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and White House health policy adviser Nancy-Ann DeParle.

The group smiled at the reporting pool. Pictures later showed a bowl of chocolate covered pretzels among the snacks.

Reid, obviously, is at the center of this moment. He is shepherding his Senate toward a bill that could define health policy for generations to come. Or not.

Reid stood before the microphone last week and boldly outlined what he would prefer in the bill — a public option, affordable care. For the senator who has held his personal views close, he threw down a marker of sorts.

But Reid has made clear from the beginning that, in this debate, President Barack Obama is leading the charge.

Obama is the quarterback, Reid has said.

So as Congress shapes the top legislative priority of the new president into a bill, it waits for cues from the White House.

Asked if the White House weighed in during a closed meeting of the Senate Democratic caucus, one senator told reporters, no, not really: The White House people are listeners.

As if it had just begun, the health care debate continues.

Discussion: 7 comments so far…

By Birdiedreamin

10/18/09 at 7:31 a.m.

Suggest removal

it is really very simple...
we are in this mess becuase of the greedy pig insurance companies and their very real death panels...
the cost of health care will eventual bankrupt this country...
hell it causes 62% of all personal bankruptcies already...
here's what you do...
simple stuff...
you do exactly what the greedy pig insurance companies with their very real death panels don't want you to do...
what they are terrified of...
what will crush their excessive profits...
we must have the public option...
period...
end of story...
remember this boys and girls...
45,000 americans die every year because they don't have health care...
that is a crime...
we should all be embarrassed...
we must have the public option!!!
By texexnv

10/18/09 at 9:03 a.m.

Suggest removal

This is like watching the Three Stooges pass around a piece of flypaper and thinking there will be no fingerprints left on it.

It's a really pretty simple deal for Pres O. Really. No public option - no second term. The public option costs FAR less than the "stimulus" and that got through quite fast and quite easily to make Big Insurance well and happy. So why can't We the People expect the same when it comes to health coverage?
By judgesmales

10/18/09 at 2:55 p.m.

Suggest removal

There will be no public option. And all of the Obama voters will wake up the morning after and know: THEY GOT USED!
By gqbossing

10/18/09 at 8:50 p.m.

Suggest removal

If you can take the emotion out of it, Glenn Beck is right about 75% of the time...

The "public" (government) option is the wrong way to go, putting control over something like this in the hands of the government is only going to make things worse.

Legislation for incentives for companies to provide insurance is the real start. If you tacked on limits in tort lawsuits and had companies start wellness plans and charging people who go to the emergency room every time they have a cough $150-$200 a visit you'd have a pretty good model to go on.

The root cause isn't the lack of insurance for people or people going bankrupt when a tragedy happens, its all the idiotic ER visits, and the folks who eat buffets daily, smoke and do drugs; and stupid lawsuits which kill doctors with malpractice insurance.

Change the culture to wellness and quick care/family doctor and take away the easy payday for a class action lawsuit or the like and you have a winner...
By dwms

10/19/09 at 1:10 a.m.

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Under Sen. Reid's and Rep. Berkley's watches, the US DHHS ordered children into domestically violent environments under the "Family Reunification Plan". The wrongful deaths, abuse and neglect of children is sevenfold since the enforcement of this plan.
By Burrittobandit2

10/19/09 at 1:05 p.m.

Suggest removal

That's it, I don't want to be a politician if all you get is bottled water and a bowl of pretzels.