Pelosi says House cannot pass Senate's health-care bill without changes

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said at a press conference Thursday, "I don't think it's possible to pass the Senate bill in the House. I don't see the votes for it at this time." Photo by Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that the Senate will have to amend its version of a health-care reform bill before Democrats in her chamber would be willing to vote for it.

"I don't think it's possible to pass the Senate bill in the House," Pelosi told reporters after a morning meeting with her caucus. "I don't see the votes for it at this time."

Pelosi (D-Calif.) has been struggling for days to sell the Senate legislation to reluctant Democrats in order to get a health-care bill to the president's desk quickly. But House liberals strongly dislike the Senate version, while moderate Democrats in both the House and Senate have raised doubts about forging ahead with the ambitious legislation without bipartisan support.

The only way to keep the Senate bill alive, Pelosi said, would be for senators to initiate a package of fixes that would address House concerns about the bill. In particular, Pelosi described her members as vehemently opposed to a provision that benefits only Nebraska's Medicaid system. Also problematic are the level of federal subsidies the Senate would offer to uninsured individuals and its new excise tax on high-value policies, which could hit union households.

"There are certain things the members simply cannot support," Pelosi said.

Aides said later that the House would not act on the Senate bill until the fixes are made, shifting responsibility for completing the bill across the Capitol. But the Senate has not agreed to move forward with such changes.

Congressional leaders also are considering starting from scratch on a new bill, an undertaking that many Democrats fear could consume months of effort as they brace for a tough 2010 election battle.

Republican Scott Brown's victory Tuesday in a Senate special election in Massachusetts blindsided Obama and Democratic leaders, who had nearly reached the finish line on an ambitious overhaul of the nation's health-care system and were beginning to turn their attention to other challenges, namely creating jobs and lowering the deficit.

The loss of their Senate supermajority has required a frantic reassessment of their strategy. Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) have pledged to complete work on the massive bill they started nearly a year ago, but they have yet to identify a clear way forward that will appeal broadly to their rank-and-file.

Obama added to the confusion Wednesday when he seemed to endorse Congress starting from scratch, by voting on a scaled-back package of popular provisions that would crack down on insurance companies but provide health coverage to far fewer additional people.

"We know that we need insurance reform, that the health insurance companies are taking advantage of people," Obama told ABC News in an interview. "We know that we have to have some form of cost containment because, if we don't, then our budgets are going to blow up. And we know that small businesses are going to need help."

But the White House quickly moved to clarify that the president still wants comprehensive reform.

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