Senate Democrats said Wednesday there is daylight between a pro-life provision they opposed in an anti-trafficking bill and abortion language tucked into a House deal to overhaul Medicare, signaling their objections may not torpedo long-sought reforms to how the health program pays doctors.
“Do we like it? No,” Sen. Charles Schumer, New York Democrat, said of the Medicare language. “Is it as severe as the provision in the trafficking bill? No, so we’ll see where we come out.”
President Obama on Wednesday said that he’ll likely sign the bill that would resolve the annual threat of automatic Medicare cuts to physicians.
“I’ve got my pen ready to sign a good, bipartisan bill, which would be really exciting,” Mr. Obama said while promoting the fifth anniversary of Obamacare. “I love when Congress passes bipartisan bills that I can sign.”
The Medicare bill would repeal an outdated budget tool that Congress overrides each year, anyway, through a so-called “doc fix,” even when the formula calls for a cut to doctors’ pay.
Lawmakers in both parties agree that the yearly overrides are silly, and the House is set to vote on its bill Thursday. The Congressional Budget Office said the cost of the fix is $200 billion, to be shared about evenly between Medicare beneficiaries and providers.
SEE ALSO: Abortion fight threatens Medicare deal as Democrats balk at pro-life language
Republican Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio and Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi of California reached agreement on the bill, which has drawn the ire of some women’s groups because it subjects community health centers to abortion curbs that Congress has enacted annually since 1979 — the so-called the Hyde amendment.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Mrs. Pelosi has “an impeccable record of standing up for the right of women to choose and make their own decisions about their health care.”
“We certainly put a lot of stock in the views of the minority leader on this,” he said.
Under pressure from pro-choice groups, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid is balking over pro-life language designed to keep federal funds from paying for abortions in both bills.
But the minority leader and other Democrats have acknowledged that the provisions in each bill are different, so they might be able to live with language in the Medicare bill.
Democrats have already filibustered to stop the anti-trafficking bill, arguing it extends the Hyde restrictions to include money collected as penalties from criminals. The Medicare bill language, meanwhile, would ban community health centers from using federal funds on abortion, but the provision would expire alongside the funding in two years.
Hyde restrictions have been law for decades, but Democrats say they fear the GOP is trying to expand them to include other types of federal money beyond revenue collected from taxpayers, and to try to enshrine the restrictions into permanent law, rather than the annual spending process.
“In the Cornyn bill, it’s not tax dollars, it’s fines. And to expand it that way just opens the door wide open,” Mr. Schumer said.
Republicans say they’re simply maintaining the status quo by including the Hyde language — it was included in Obamacare to win enough votes — and that Democratic objections should not scuttle bipartisan achievements.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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