Democrats Signal Willingness to Scale Back Health-Care Bill

By Edwin Chen and Laura Litvan

Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- House Democratic lawmakers are signaling a willingness to scale back legislation overhauling the U.S. health-care system, a day after the party suffered a defeat in a Massachusetts special Senate election.

At the same time, President Barack Obama’s administration will push to revive the health-care overhaul after giving Democratic lawmakers a couple of days to digest the results of the Republican upset in Massachusetts, a White House aide said.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer expressed support for Obama’s suggestion that lawmakers focus health-care talks on ideas on which both political parties can agree.

“That’s a reasonable alternative,” Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said today. Lawmakers need to concentrate on making insurance affordable for people, helping small businesses provide coverage, and improving the insurance market, he said.

“You could do it in a number of ways,” Hoyer said. “You could do it in an individual new bill.”

The administration is split on how to move forward, with some advocating giving Congress direction and others favoring a more hands-off approach, said the aide, who requested anonymity.

The elements of the legislation Obama would like to see include insurance reforms, subsidies to some individuals and small business to help them afford coverage and cost-containment steps, the aide said.

The White House hasn’t decided whether to push for a provision requiring all Americans to have insurance, the aide said.

Loss of Supermajority

The administration is counting on lawmakers to come to the realization they must pass some health legislation because the House and Senate have already voted on separate versions of the bill. The plans may cost $1 trillion over 10 years and are intended to expand health coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans.

Republican Scott Brown’s victory yesterday in Massachusetts deprives Democrats of their supermajority of 60 votes in the Senate, imperiling the legislation.

Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, the chief Democratic vote-counter in the House, said Democrats should consider an incremental approach to health care.

He suggested Congress could pass a smaller bill then return to the issue over the years with related legislation.

“Medicare wasn’t done in one fell swoop,” Clyburn told reporters. “People weren’t happy with it the first time and they amended it and they amended it and they amended it.” Legislators took the same approach to Civil Rights legislation, Clyburn said, and “the same principle applies here” to health- care.

--With assistance from James Rowley, Nicole Gaouette, Kristin Jensen, Catherine Dodge and Holly Rosenkrantz in Washington. Editors: Mark McQuillan, Jim Kirk.

To contact the reporters on this story: Nicholas Johnston in Washington at +1-202-654-1264 or njohnston3@bloomberg.net Catherine Dodge in Washington at +1-202-624-1828 or cdodge1@bloomberg.net;

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

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