House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Tuesday that he was willing to vote for a health care reform bill that does not have a controversial “public” insurance option because the current proposals contain many positive insurance industry reforms.
“If the public option weren’t in there, I would still support the bill,” said Mr. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, pointing, for instance, to changes that would ban insurance companies from denying coverage to patients with pre-existing health problems.
Mr. Hoyer also refused to put a new timetable in place for when the House would pass a health care overhaul bill. He said his first deadline — to pass a reform bill by August — may have been wrong, in light of hearing from Americans who wanted more time to read the proposals.
“Frankly, I think they were correct,” he said.
The House health care reform plans are likely to change from the early versions drafted in three different congressional panels, according to Democratic aides, pointing to reducing cost as one of the top alterations.
The big political showdown is likely to be over the public option in the House, where liberals have threatened to withhold support if the provision isn’t included and conservative Democrats have threatened to withhold support if it is. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, has said that a health reform bill without the public insurance plan as an option would not pass the House.
President Obama is expected to lay his own bottom line for a health care bill in a speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday evening.
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