Analysis: Health Care Progress, Now a Challenge

Senate Finance Committee member Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine talks to reporters outside of the Senate...

Senate Finance Committee member Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine talks to reporters outside of the Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009. Senate Majority Leader of Nev. announced Thursday that the Finance Committee will vote next week on the health care bill. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg)

(AP)

More than nine months in the making, the health care bill soon to emerge from the Senate Finance Committee is the only one judged so far to meet President Barack Obama's conditions for significantly expanding insurance coverage without raising federal deficits, at the same time it slows the rise in medical costs.

Now the challenge for the White House and Democratic leaders is to rewrite it by Christmas in ways that can command a congressional majority, without running afoul of administration specifications.

"We are much closer than we have been to accomplishing the elusive goal of reforming health care" than ever before, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., told reporters on Thursday during a break in marathon leadership meetings on the issue.

"I am encouraged at how far we have come, and I think we're going to make it," he added.

Numerous controversies are ahead for Democrats struggling to pass legislation over intense and possibly unanimous Republican opposition. The biggest involves allowing the government to sell insurance in competition with private industry, a step favored by liberals and opposed by many moderates in the party. And House Democrats have yet to draft a bill that clearly meets Obama's objectives.

But Democrats have made significant strides since Labor Day, when they returned to the Capitol in near disarray after an August spent absorbing attacks from noisy conservative critics at home.

What gave Waxman's comments fresh significance was a letter from the Congressional Budget Office that landed Wednesday on the other side of the Capitol, giving a positive review to the bill that the Senate Finance Committee will approve early next week.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the committee chairman and principal architect of the measure, hailed the estimates within moments of receiving them.

"This legislation, I believe, is a smart investment on our federal balance sheet. It's an even smarter investment for American families, businesses and our economy," he said on the Senate floor. The committee votes on the bill Tuesday.