Pushing for Health Care Reform

The health and finance committees share jurisdiction over health issues. The finance panel, the next step on the way to passage of any measure, is now the focus of intense scrutiny. It must say how it intends to pay for its proposals and, unlike the health panel, has the power to do so because it can write tax legislation and has authority over Medicare and Medicaid. President Obama hailed the health committee’s action, but reiterated his insistence that each chamber of Congress approve a health care bill before the August recess. His comments increased pressure on the chairman of the Finance Committee, Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, who has been struggling for months to get a bipartisan bill. “The HELP committee’s success should give us hope, but it should not give us pause,” Mr. Obama said. “It should instead provide the urgency for both the House and Senate to finish their critical work on health reform before the August recess.” Senators said the White House had been sending mixed signals. For months, they said, it emphasized the need for a bipartisan bill. But in the last 10 days, one Democrat said, the message has been: “Hurry up. If you have to go without Republicans, it’s not the end of the world.” As a presidential candidate, Mr. Obama boasted of his ability to transcend partisan splits that had stymied action in Washington. At a candidates’ forum in Las Vegas in March 2007 — even before he had a detailed health care proposal — Mr. Obama declared that “the most important challenge is to build a political consensus” on covering all Americans. The Senate committee vote came just a day before three House committees plan to start amending and voting on similar legislation that has little chance of Republican support. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, has said he hopes to have a health care bill