Sofia Marin
Newswire21.org

House Democratic leaders reached a deal with the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats Wednesday that clears the way for health care legislation to move forward in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The Blue Dogs won concessions on requirements on small businesses. As part of the compromise, close to 86 percent of small businesses – those with an annual payroll of $500,000 or less – will be exempt from a mandate to provide employees with health insurance coverage. The existing bill had set the level at $250,000.

The revisions would also reduce subsidies to help people buy health insurance and would require any government-sponsored insurance plan to negotiate payment rates with medical providers instead of dictating them.

The mandate on small businesses is key to determining the number of Americans who’ll be covered under the reform plan. According to the US Small Business Administration, smaller firms – those with less than 500 workers - employ about 80 percent of the American workforce. They account for 99 percent of all US companies.

Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.) told reporters that the public health insurance option won’t be mandated. "It's strictly optional,” he said. “It will not be based on Medicare rates."

Ross characterized the solution as being “as close as you can get to totally removing the mandate” without killing it entirely. Now, only larger companies will pay for insurance.

"Quite frankly, once you get up to three-quarter million a year in annual payroll, as a former small business owner myself, most of them are already providing health insurance, and if they're not, they should,” he said.

Cost Savings
The compromise cuts the cost of the current plan by $100 billion, which could help garner the necessary support to pass legislation. But the concessions made by liberal Democrats, notably committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Ca.), could mean no coverage for 46 million uninsured Americans.

While the compromise seems to be at odds with President Obama’s proposed health care reforms, the president praised the committees deal in a statement.

“I'm especially grateful that so many members, including some Blue Dogs on the Energy and Commerce Committee, are working so hard to find common ground,” he said. “Those efforts are extraordinarily constructive in strengthening this legislation and bringing down its cost.”

The compromise now heads to the House floor, where it will be reconciled with the two other health reform bills from the Ways and Means and Education and Labor committees before being merged with versions under consideration in the Senate.