WASHINGTON – The end game at hand, Senate Democrats appeared ready to jettison a proposed Medicare expansion from sweeping health care legislation Monday in a bid to remove the largest remaining obstacle in the way of Christmas-week passage of the measure.
We all stand shoulder-to-shoulder,” Majority Leader Harry Reid said after a closed-door meeting called to discuss last-minute trade-offs in the legislation that President Barack Obama has made a top priority.
Liberals had sought the Medicare expansion as a last-minute substitute for a full-blown, government-run insurance program that moderates insisted be removed from the legislation. But it drew strong opposition from Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and quieter concerns from a dozen Democrats — all of whom hold votes essential for passage.
Reid did not say flatly that Democrats had decided to drop the proposal for uninsured Americans as young as 55 to purchase coverage under Medicare. “Our job is to govern,” said Sen. Tom Carper, giving voice to a theme that Democrats have struck all year as they pursued their improbable goal of overhauling the nation’s health care system.
The president met Monday with Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., who has been trying to negotiate a compromise on the abortion issue with Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska. Casey told reporters after the White House meeting he and the president had discussed unspecified ideas for resolving the issue. In a gesture that Democrats said was aimed at the AARP, Reid promised late in the day that any final compromise with the House would completely close a gap in Medicare prescription drug coverage generally known as a “doughnut hole.” The Senate bill goes only part way toward that goal.
Democrats are “looking for 60 votes,” said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the party’s second-ranking Senate leader — a statement that has characterized their effort to overcome Republican opposition for months.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has played a prominent role in the debate, said Democrats were using a “bizarre process” to draft their bill. The two provisions were seen as a replacement for Reid’s initial call for a government-run insurance plan to compete with private industry.

Liberals have long wanted a government-run option, but moderates oppose it as an unwanted intrusion into the health care system. In announcing the agreement last week, Reid told reporters he could finally see the finish line for his effort to pass a health care bill.

Despite that optimism, opposition to the Medicare changes blossomed from doctors and hospitals, who are paid less to treat patients under Medicare than those covered by private insurance companies.

In a pointed rebuttal, Lieberman’s spokesman, Marshall Wittman, said the Connecticut lawmaker had told Reid privately on Friday “that he had problems with the Medicare provision.”

But Lieberman’s consistency on the issue came under question within hours, when House Democrats circulated a videotape from September in which he spoke favorably of allowing men and women as young as 55 to purchase coverage under Medicare.

Wittman said those comments were made before the Senate health care bill, which includes health insurance subsidies, was finalized. He said Lieberman believes the government assistance makes a Medicare buy-in program redundant.

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