Democrats May Not Have Health Plan Before Obama Summit Meeting

By James Rowley

Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. House Democrats said their party may not be able to present a single health-care proposal at a Feb. 25 meeting that President Barack Obama has called with a challenge to Republicans to present their alternative.

Obama has promised to “post online the text of a proposed health-insurance package” in advance of the televised meeting.

Democrats in Congress are still reconciling differences between versions of health legislation passed last year by the House and Senate. House Democrats, during a conference call with reporters today, said the two chambers are close to an agreement though they may not have a plan by next week.

“I don’t know whether the president is going to put one particular piece of legislation on the table,” Maryland Representative Chris Van Hollen told reporters. Obama has said the House and Senate measures “provide a very good basis for moving forward and we are very close to having ironed out the differences” between them, Van Hollen said.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, asked by reporters yesterday whether the president would present his own plan if Democrats in Congress failed to agree, said, “stay tuned.”

In addition to pledging to post an overhaul plan online, Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius challenged Republican leaders in a Feb. 12 letter to “put forward their own comprehensive bill.”

Van Hollen, a member of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s leadership team, said Obama would use next week’s forum “to get a sense of what our Republican colleagues’ objectives are” and “work to try to include those ideas, if they are not already included in the legislation.”

No ‘Clear Answer’

“While we can’t give you, process-wise, a clear answer on what’s going to happen at this meeting, everyone has some general outlines what to expect,” said California Democrat Xavier Becerra, another member of House Democratic leadership.

Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, also declined to say whether there would be an agreement among Democrats before the meeting.

“We are continuing to make progress on winnowing the differences between the House and Senate proposals,” Manley said in a telephone interview.

Connecticut Democrat Rosa DeLauro, also a member of Pelosi’s leadership team, said that in holding the summit, Obama is addressing Republicans’ complaints that they were left out of congressional deliberations.

“Much of what they were interested in is part of the bill already, she said, adding that the meeting will help determine “if there is a genuineness” among Republicans “about moving forward.”

--With assistance from Edwin Chen in Washington. Editors: Laurie Asseo, Jim Kirk.

To contact the reporter on this story: James Rowley in Washington at +1-202-624-1913 or jarowley@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jim Kirk in Washington at +1-202-654-4315 or jkirk12@bloomberg.net.